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This Weight Watchers Tuscan Chicken Pasta is a delicious and easy weeknight meal that your entire family will love! I’ve altered this popular dish to be a healthy, WW recipe without sacrificing the creamy and indulgent pasta dish.
This is one of my most popular recipes on the site, and for good reason. If you’re looking for more Weight Watchers dinner recipes, I recommend trying this WW Egg Roll in a Bowl, this Weight Watchers Goulash, or these Weight Watchers Swedish Meatballs.
Why I Love This Pasta Recipe
This is one of my favorite Weight Watchers dinner recipes because it’s lower in points but also filling and satisfying enough to curb even the strongest creamy pasta craving!
Craving pasta but can’t do pasta? I get that! When I’m really trying to keep my points down but want nothing but a bowl of noodles, this Healthy Chicken Lo Mein uses zucchini noodles or zoodles in place of the pasta.
Enjoy!
– Becca
Ingredients in WW Tuscan Chicken
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
- Whole Wheat Pasta: Pasta made from whole grains is lower in calories and carbs, as well as higher in fiber and most micronutrients.
- Fat free cottage cheese and fat free Greek yogurt: When blended together, this combination replicates heavy cream while adding protein and keeping your points down. To keep this a Weight Watchers friendly recipe, use fat free.
- Spinach: Spinach is an excellent source of Vitamins A, C, and K, and full of fiber, calcium, and iron.
Instant Pot Instructions
Step 1: Lightly spray the pot with olive oil or cooking spray and set to sauté. Once the pot is hot, add tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
Step 2: Add the cubed chicken to the pot, and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring often. This will prevent your chicken from clumping together while it’s under pressure. Once the chicken is browned on all sides, add the chicken broth.
Step 3: Add the pasta to the pot and stir well, ensuring that all noodles are below the liquid.
Step 4: Close and lock the lid and turn the pressure valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook (high) and set the time for 3 minutes.
While your chicken is cooking, blend the cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and parmesan cheese together until smooth, then set aside.
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Step 5: When the cook time is complete, quick release the pressure and remove the lid.
Stir the contents of the pot. Drain any excess liquid from the pot, keeping aside 1/4 cup.
Add the 1/4 cup liquid to the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt mixture and stir well.
Add the spinach and fresh basil to the pot and stir until the leaves have wilted.
Step 6: Allow the recipe to cool for a few minutes so the dairy doesn’t curdle.
Add the blended yogurt, cottage cheese, and parmesan mixture to the pot and stir gently until evenly mixed.
Serve immediately. Garnish with additional parmesan and fresh basil.
Recipe Tips
- Cut your chicken into one-inch cubes or ½ inch thick slices so that it cooks quickly and evenly.
- If you’re using dried basil, you only need 1 tsp. Add it during step one along with the rest of the spices.
- Blending the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt together in a blender will remove the chunks from the cottage cheese and reduce the tang from the Greek yogurt. A blender or food processor is important in this recipe, otherwise your finished recipe will have chunks in it and taste a little more like Greek yogurt.
Weight Watchers Tuscan Chicken Pasta FAQs
Yes! For meal prep, cook per the instructions and then refrigerate or freeze in individual serving size containers.
I calculate points based on the ingredients that I use, not by nutrition information. This is the most accurate way to count, as stated by Weight Watchers.
I like to pair this pasta dish with vegetables like this Air Fry Frozen Broccoli, this Eggplant Air Fryer Recipe, or these Carrot French Fries.
Weight Watchers Points
Each serving counts as 5 Points using fat free parmesan, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt.
Divide the recipe into 6 equal servings for your most accurate portion size–especially if you use different shaped pasta, as they all expand to a different size when cooked.
Weight Watchers Pasta Recipes
If you tried this recipe for Weight Watchers Tuscan Chicken Pasta or any other recipe on my site please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
Weight Watchers Tuscan Chicken Pasta
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Equipment
- Instant Pot 6 qt
- Kitchen Knife
- Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes without oil, or you can use halved grape tomatoes
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 3 tbsp Italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 lbs chicken breast diced into 1-inch cubes
- 12 oz whole wheat pasta
- 3 cups chicken broth fat free, 1 cup only for Crockpot method.
- ¾ cup Greek yogurt fat-free plain
- ¾ cup cottage cheese fat-free
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 tbsp fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
- ⅔ cup parmesan cheese grated, fat free
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Lightly spray the pot with cooking spray and press the sauté button. Once your pot is hot, add tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Cook until just fragrant using a wooden spoon or spatula to prevent sticking. ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes 1 tbsp garlic 3 tbsp Italian seasoning ¼ tsp black pepper
- Add chicken to the pot. Brown chicken on all sides for 3-5 minutes. 2 lbs chicken breast
- Add the whole wheat noodles and chicken broth to the pot. Stir and make sure all of the pasta is pushed below the liquid. 12 oz whole wheat pasta 3 cups chicken broth
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- While the pasta is cooking, blend the Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and parmesan cheese together until smooth and set aside. ¾ cup Greek yogurt ¾ cup cottage cheese ⅔ cup parmesan cheese
- When the cook time is complete, quick release the pressure and remove the lid. Stir the contents of the pot. Drain any excess liquid from the pot, keeping aside 1/4 cup. Add the 1/4 cup liquid to the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt mixture and stir well.
- Add spinach and fresh basil to the pot and stir until the leaves have wilted. Allow the pasta to cool for a minute or two so the dairy doesn't curdle. 2 cups baby spinach 2 tbsp fresh basil
- Add the Greek yogurt mixture, then stir until mixed. Serve immediately.
Stovetop Instructions:
- Lightly spray a large skillet or pot with cooking oil, then add tomatoes, garlic, Italian herbs, and pepper. Sauté over high heat for 30 seconds.
- Next, add cubed chicken to the skillet and brown for 1-2 minutes until chicken no longer sticks together.
- Add the pasta and chicken broth to the skillet, stir, and make sure all the noodles are just covered. Once the noodles are covered, set the remaining broth aside. Once the broth begins to boil, cover your skillet and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once the pasta is cooked, add spinach and basil. Stir until the spinach is wilted. Drain any excess liquid from the pan, but reserve 1/4 cup in case you need it later.
- Blend the cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and parmesan cheese until smooth, then add to the pan.
- Stir in the additional pasta water if needed, and serve immediately topped with fresh basil.
Crockpot Instructions
- Lightly spray a large skillet with cooking oil, then add tomatoes, garlic, Italian herbs, and pepper. Sauté over high heat for 30 seconds or so until it becomes fragrant.
- Add your cubed chicken to the pan and brown for 1-2 minutes until the chicken no longer sticks together.
- Transfer chicken and sun dried tomatoes (all of the contents of the pan) to your crockpot and top with chicken broth. Cook on high heat for 2-3 hours, or low heat for 4-5 hours.
- About 20 minutes before you’d like to eat, boil the pasta in a separate pot according to package directions. Once cooked, drain and add to the Crockpot.
- Drain any excess liquid (set aside 1/4 cup) and add spinach and basil. Stir until spinach is wilted.
- Blend cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and parmesan cheese in a blender until smooth, and add the mixture to the Crockpot.
- Stir the cottage cheese mixture and 1/4 cup pasta water into the contents of the slow cooker.
- Stir one last time and serve immediately with extra parmesan cheese and fresh basil, as desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I think the recipe is amazing! I can not figure out why people are complaining about the layout or having any confusion. It is very easy to comprehend and follow and I love how you offer three ways to prepare. You should not lose out on 5 stars because of USER errors. Thank you for sharing this!
I ran the recipe through the 2023 Weight Watcher app for Jan 2023 and for 6 servings I get 7 WW points. The pasta and parmesan cheese add all the points. How did you calculate 3 points?
Hi Patty,
I have 5 points for ff parmesan and 12 points for whole wheat pasta. I just realized though, that the pasta it calculated was for cooked – I changed that to uncooked (26 points) and am now at 5 points per serving.
Made this tonight and will definitely save this recipe. It was soooo good, easy and one dish meal. Delicious! Served with cheese and Galicia bread and salad. Can’t wait to try on guests!
Made this tonight and will definitely save this recipe. It was soooo good, easy and one dish meal. Delicious! Served with cheese and Galicia bread and salad.
I commented previously, but I’ll also add that the format of the site was a little annoying with the instant pot/crockpot/skillet methods. I was doing the skillet method and had to keep scrolling all the way up and all the way back down as I made this in order the have the steps and the amounts. Love that there are different ways to cook it, though! Not sure what the solution would be… maybe putting the amounts in the directions too? Like “Add spinach (2 cups)” or whatever.
Thanks for the feedback Meghan. We used to put the stovetop/IP/show cooker directions all in the printable recipe area but a lot of people didn’t appreciate having to print all of those out, so we landed on this format.
Adding the measurements in the text would be helpful (I’ve often thought this when I’m cooking and following a recipe) but as someone who updates the site as well as writes new recipes, the behind the scenes answer to why we don’t do this is that it triples the work when we change something and also leaves more room for error – so, the less places the measurements are written in is better for us (and better for our readers in the long run).
We have stopped providing slow cooker directions for our recipes, so I’d like to think that our newer recipes are a bit more manageable :)
Great taste!! I was surprised there wasn’t any salt in the recipe. We had to add some. I was a little confused by draining it… I guess it makes sense, but all that broth had the great garlic flavor and all the Italian seasoning, so it was kind of a bummer to drain it away. I suppose it would have been too soupy, though, if we’d kept it! Loved this overall though.
Thanks Meghan! My recipes almost always leave the salt out unless it’s needed for cooking to allow for you to season each plate individually. And exactly–it would be way too soupy if you left the leftover liquid in it. If you’re making it and would rather leave out the yogurt/cottage cheese you could get away with leaving some of the liquid in.
So delicious it’s going to be a repeat recipe even my hubby loved it !! Thank you
Hello, I love this recipe but I find that the pasta does get a little over done. I was thinking about just making the sauce portion of it and make the pasta as needed, but am unsure of the amount of chicken stock to use if I don’t add the pasta in the dish as I make it.
Hi Marianne! Are you using whole wheat pasta?
I made this for my family last night and everyone loved it! I was anticipating a large amount of leftovers, as there are only 3 people in my family, but we ate all of it. I can’t wait to make this again. It is definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
I made this with the slow cooker. Absolutely delicious! Even my husband who is not on WW thought it was great.