This chicken and sun-dried tomato pasta is my copycat of The Cheesecake Factory dish. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I think it is much, much better.

Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta in a fancy bowl with hard parmigiano reggiono on a microplane and a bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley

I don’t usually put up too many copycat recipes from American chain restaurants on this site; In fact I think the only true chain restaurant copycat is my lemon caper penne from Souplantation! But a guilty pleasure of mine is The Cheesecake Factory’s sundried tomato pasta.

Unlike ‘the factory’, I wanted to go 100% fresh and high quality ingredients for this chicken and sun-dried tomato pasta. That meant fresh homemade fettuccine, high end sun dried tomatoes, and excellent cheese.

How To Make Sun-dried Tomato Pasta

Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta ingredients on a table

This fresh pasta recipe is actually very easy. The key with recipes that do not have many ingredients is to use the highest quality ones you can find. If you don’t want to make fresh pasta you can use store-bought, but I’m including instructions for how to make homemade fettuccine down below regardless.

Ingredients (Fresh Pasta)

2 cups Flour – I use AP flour but you can use a cup of AP and a cup of Semolina if you like, which is a popular method in Italy.
2 tbsp Olive Oil – try to find something cold pressed, extra virgin as you really want to use high quality olive oil when making fresh pasta.
3 large Eggs – room temperature
1 tsp Salt

Ingredients (Sun-dried Tomato Pasta)

2 Chicken Breasts – skinless, cut into cubes
500 ml Heavy Whipping Cream
8-10 Sun-dried Tomatoes – cut into thin strips. You can use more if you want, but reserve one for slicing atop as a garnish.
6 cloves Garlic – peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp Red Chili Flakes – feel free to add more if you want the dish actually spicy. This one teaspoon is only really for a nice pepper flavor.
1 tsp Salt – plus more for the pasta water.
Black Pepper – freshly cracked, to taste
Olive Oil – as needed
2 tbsp Parsley – roughly chopped, optional
75 grams Parmigiano Reggiano – grated with a microplane (this is about a cup of grated cheese loosely packed).

How To Make Homemade Fettuccine (Skip These Steps If You Are Using Store-bought Pasta)

Homemade Fettuccine pasta ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment

Add all of your fresh pasta ingredients to a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and let knead at the lowest setting until combined. You can also do this by hand on a flat, floured surface; I just find the stand mixer to remove a TON of work.

When the dough is pulled into a nice tight ball you can take it out of the mixer. Knead it into a ball and place it in a bowl to rest for a half hour. This lets the gluten activate more and create a great mouthfeel when you eat your homemade fettuccine.

four pieces of fresh pasta dough on a floured wood table with a French rolling pin

After resting the dough, move it to a floured surface and cut it into four pieces. I find four pieces to be a good amount as each piece is a very hearty serving per person. Note: if you are serving pasta in the traditional Italian way as a primi, then each quarter makes a serving for two people.

A very long piece of just rolled fresh pasta for Homemade Fettuccine using an Imperial Italian pasta rolling machine

Use a rolling pin to shape the dough piece into a flat-ish rectangle. Then feed the dough into a pasta roller starting at the largest thickness and moving thinner. I use a classic hand-cranked Imperial machine, so I go to the second thinnest setting (the thinnest is for wonton or gyoza wrappers).

My Imperial pasta roller has a cutting attachment for linguine (small) and fettuccine (big). I just put that on and run the sheet of pasta through it while hand cranking at a even pace. Then move all your fettuccine strips back to the floured surface and toss them in flour so they do not stick to each other.

If you don’t want to make a huge amount of pasta now, you can cut the sun-dried tomato pasta ingredients in half, and use half the fresh pasta. Save the rest for a different recipe the next day. I actually split the dough and did fettuccine porcini, before making this pasta the day after.

Making Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta

Add some olive oil to a hot pan and add the cubed chicken breast along with salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink and starts to brown a bit. The chicken isn’t fully cooked now, but it will be by the time the sauce is finished.

adding sun-dried tomato and garlic to the chicken breast in the pan

Add the sun-dried tomatoes and thinly sliced garlic to the pan. Give everything a stir. Don’t let the garlic sit in any one spot on the pan for too long or it will burn and get bitter. Set a pot of heavily salted boiling water on another burner.

adding parsley and heavy cream to the Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta sauce in the pan

Add the heavy cream, tomato paste, and rough chopped parsley. Give everything a stir and let the cream come to temperature. Once bubbling turn the heat down to medium.

Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta sauce with a wooden spoon in a black pan

As the sauce thickens you will notice it getting a light orange color. At this point toss your fettuccine into the pot of boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry and you don’t want soggy pasta so make sure not to let it sit in the pot too long.

Using tongs to move freshly boiled fettuccine noodles to the Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta sauce in the pan

Use tongs to move the pasta over from the boiling water directly into the pan. Don’t worry if a lot of water comes too, that will add salt to the sauce and add a more luxurious texture due to the starch.

Give everything a good mix and go ahead and plate. Divide the grated Parmigiano Reggiano and sprinkle it over each plate. Top with some thinly sliced strips of sun-dried tomato for garnish and serve. Enjoy!