Slow Cooker Zucchini Pasta with Chicken is an easy and healthy pasta recipe that has an ultra creamy sauce without any butter or cream! The secret is slow cooked zucchini that turns into a magical sauce perfect for pasta! Thanks Meghan Markle (now the Duchess of Sussex) for this awesome hack!
Who else in the vice grip of this sweltering heat wave??? I think it is taking over just about the entire country! Y’all be careful out there! Stay hydrated and keep cool! Us southerners are pretty used to the heat and the humidity, but it can sneak up on you quick! In fact, I am looking out the window as we speak and I see that my poor plants on my deck that are droopy and sad (note to self that I need to go out and give them a drink) and it just rained heavily last night. We get our daily afternoon thunderstorms on a pretty regular basis.
All of this brings me to my point, which is the LAST THING that I feel like doing in this heat is cooking over a hot stove to put dinner on the table! Are you with me? So I have been turning to Mr. Slow Cooker as much as possible. One of my new favs is this Slow Cooker Zucchini Pasta with Chicken!
I’ll admit that when I first read Meghan Markle’s interview where she talked about her “hack” for a creamy pasta sauce made out of slow cooked zucchini I was skeptical. In my mind, I couldn’t figure out how zucchini would turn into an ultra creamy sauce… But as I have mentioned, we had a garden that was over flowing with zucchinis and I was looking for every way to use up this beauties. So I decided to give it a try! Man! I am so glad that I did! 🤗 I really can’t explain it, but something magical does happen when you slow cook zucchini – it turns into a creamy sauce without any butter or cream!!!
The inspiration for my Slow Cooker Zucchini Pasta with Chicken recipe was this recipe from Delish!! This is the fourth and probably last (for now because our garden is no longer producing zucchini..LOL 🤣) in my zucchini series. Check out my other zucchini recipes in this series:
Here is your recipe for Slow Cooker Zucchini Pasta with Chicken:
- Slow cooker liner or nonstick cooking spray
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
- 1.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2 lbs. (approximately 5-6 medium) zucchini, chopped
- ½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth (more broth may be needed for cooking pasta)
- 1 box (15 oz.) whole wheat rotini pasta
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
- Sea salt, freshly ground pepper and red pepper flake (optional); to taste
- Place a slow cooker liner in the bowl of a slow cooker or spray generously with nonstick cooking spray.
- Add onions and garlic to the bottom of the slow cooker bowl.
- Add chicken and then zucchini.
- Pour broth over mixture.
- Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours until chicken is full cooking and shreds easily and zucchini has broken down. Stir well.
- Add the uncooked pasta to slow cooker and stir to combine. If there isn't enough liquid to cover the pasta, add additional chicken broth to cover.
- Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes until pasta is cooked. Stir well.
- Add lemon zest, lemon juice, parmesan and basil and stir to combine.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper and red flakes (if using).
- Enjoy!