I had two stand-by things to order at The Olive Garden, and sadly, they have taken both of them off their menu. One was Chicken Vino Bianco. Oh, man, I loved that dish. When they got rid of it, I started ordering Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli instead.
Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli got me safely (and fat-ly) through two pregnancies every time I got the urge to eat something terrible for me. When they took it off the menu, I was pretty bummed out. Now, I just sit in there and stare sadly at the menu, not knowing what to do with myself.
This calls for orecchiette noodles. I found them at Trader Joe’s, but they the only difference is the shape. If you can’t find them, just use medium shells or something. Even spaghetti noodles would work fine.
I thought the finished product on this was almost *exactly* like the restaurant version. Possibly a little better. Oh, and it makes enough for four people for less than the price of one plate of it at The Olive Garden. So, neener neener, Olive Garden. 🙂
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup flour
3 Tablespoons olive oil
4 oz dry Italian Orecchiette noodles (or medium shells, or whatever you’ve got)
2 tablespoons of fresh, minced garlic
1 pint of heavy cream
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
salt/pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
grated Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions:
Cut each chicken breast in half, and pound them thin. Sprinkle each side with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, and then sprinkle with flour.
In a large pan, heat the olive oil. Cook the chicken for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned and the juices run clear. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water until just al dente. Drain and set aside.
Make a rue out of the cornstarch and a few tablespoons of the heavy cream. Using the same pan with the bits of chicken and seasoning from the chicken, add the rue and the remaining cream to the pan. Season with chicken bouillon, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until it thickens to an alfredo-like consistency.
Add broccoli and pasta and cook for a few minutes more until the broccoli and pasta are cooked perfectly. Top with chicken, sprinkle with Parmesan, and serve. Enjoy!
Rumbly in my Tumbly 
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe — this was my favorite too and I've been looking for a copy-cat recipe. I'm featuring it on my Friday Favorite Finds tomorrow because it really was a favorite for me this week.
Thanks for letting me know, SnoWhite! You have a great blog.
Delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for visiting, Ghina!
Wanted to suggest one thing. I put the chicken breast in a brine solution for half an hour prior to cooking the chicken. It came out soo tender and juicy!
Yummy! Before I added the cream & corn starch I did saute some minced garlic first, and added 2 tbsp of butter. Yum! =)
THank you thank you this was also my fave at the olive garden and was bummed when they took it off the menu!
Thank you so much for sharing. This was one of our favorite meals at olive garden, so happy to have the recipe!!
I been looking for something different gonna try this I love Olive Garden
Salli, hope you love this! Thanks for visiting!
HaHa…I feel the same way when I go to Olive Garden. My two favorites were the tuscan garlic chicken, and this dish. Now I don’t even like going there anymore…I just get depressed that I can’t have what I REALLY want! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
Made this tonight for my husband and I. It was amazing! Absolutely perfect. I did sauté the garlic in 4 tablespoons of butter after cooking chicken. Added even more fat and calls but it was delish :))
The recipe called for garlic but I didn’t see them in directions
Yes. I noticed that too. I had all my ingredients out and had that remaining, so it threw it in to simmer a bit with the cream, broccoli and pasta. Turned out just fine.
I made this tonight and I liked it even better than at Olive Garden. Yum!
I have made this dish plenty of times and it’s absolutely delicious! Thank you! I’ll be making this for our Valentine’s dinner tonight. 😉
Quadrupled this for my family…..oh my goodness so yummy! Thank you so much.
Made this tonight. Very good; not perfect, but that would be due to my mistakes. The garlic is missing from the directions, so I chose to add it in the last couple minutes of sauteing the chicken. I think the recipe calls for a bit too much salt, so those watching sodium or sensitive to the taste should definitely cut back and add it to taste. I added only the 1tsp specified for the chicken; I never added any into the sauce. It could be due to the addition of the chicken bouillon, which is also very high in sodium.
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I look forward to tweaking my old Olive Garden favorite.
Oh, I almost forgot! Instead of pounding chicken breasts, I used tenderloins and cut them in half lengthwise. They cooked quickly and stayed perfectly moist! I tend to prefer un-tenderized chicken.
I can’t wait to make this and try it! I actually sent Olive Garden an email complaining about this no longer being on the menu. All they said was there were more people who wanted the menu changed than wanted this dish,
I don’t believe that! So many people love that dish! It was the best thing on the menu! Hope you try this and it works out for you!
The recipe doesn’t say what to do with the “minced garlic”???
You add it right after you pour in the heavy cream. It goes in with the “sauce” mixture. That’s at least what I did and it came out great.
I made this the other night and it was FANTASTIC! I will be making this dish more often. I loved this dish when I went to the Olive Garden and like everyone else, I was upset when they removed it. This is a GREAT copycat recipe. Two thumbs up! The seasoning for the chicken was spot on.
So glad you liked this Jill, thanks for the comment!
Thank you Jill 🙂 !
What can be done to prevent the sauce from getting too thick and without affecting the flavor?
Hi Carla, add just a bit of cream or milk- not too much, and you may have to adjust your salt and pepper.
Love love love this dish!
I don’t have cream can I use 2%milk instead?
Leann, you can. It might be a little less creamy but it will work.
I loved this menu item! I also have a hard time ordering now.
I need to try this! Thanks for the recipe. I wish there was a little more information on how to make a roux, though…I don’t know how to do it.
I also complained that they removed this from the menu. I have no interest in going to Olive Garden anymore, since they keep removing the best stuff from their menu. Anyway, at the restaurant, they told me it was “too hard” to keep making it (to which I was like, “What?” because I go to restaurants so that they can feed me things that are too hard to make for myself). I can’t remember their email response, but it was something similar to what someone above said. They like to change up their menu.
Can you tell me how many this recipe serves?
Hi lauren, this recipe served my family of 2 adults and 2 kids with leftovers. I’d say it serves 4.
I can not thank you enough for posting this recipe. Just like everyone else here, I too LOVED this dish and was very disappointed that they took it off their menu. I’m so excited to have this recipe and FINALLY enjoy this dish again! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Wow this was delicious. I made this with shrimp and the shrimp came out excellent, along with the pasta. I so loved this item at the Olive Garden and was so sad to see it go. Just a fabulous recipe. Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it. Thanks for the comment!
Wow this was delicious. I made this with shrimp and the shrimp came out excellent, along with the pasta. I so loved this item at the Olive Garden and was so sad to see it go. Just a fabulous recipe. Thank you!
Guess what!!!!! It’s back on the menu at Olive Garden!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! ❤️❤️❤️😁😁😁
This was my favorite entree at Olive Garden. I’ve made it a few times now and this recipe perfectly replicates the exact flavor of the dish that I would get at the restaurant. Thank you, so much for sharing!
This was one of my wife’s favorites at Olive Garden. I am going to cook this for her for Mother’s Day.Thank you!
I just wanted to give some feed back. To really hit the point on this recipe, I’d substitute potato starch flour for the cornstarch. I’d also saute 1 tbl minced shallot or red onion with the garlic, for about a minute and then add broccoli, then saute 1 minute lightly tossing. after broccoli has warmed up, deglaze broccoli with 1/4 cup white wine such as chardonnay or sauvignon blanc (not too sweet not too dry) saki will even work in a pinch. Cook for another minute lightly tossing and then add the heavy cream and either chicken stock or the chicken bouillon mixed with water- potato starch slurry- bring to bubbly and then add cheese and chicken. If it’s too thick add more chicken stock and then toss in pasta. That would be the most authentic way to recreate Olive Garden’s Chicken con broccoli which is a garlic white wine cream sauce not an alfredo sauce. Positive Vibes Foodies, enjoy.
I am SO excited to try this! I have only been to Olive Garden ONCE since they removed this from the menu! Thank you for this recipe!!
Love this recipe. Was my FAVORITE at OG. Only thing is you never add the garlic in the instructions. Just made it and forgot to add the garlic since it wasn’t written in and ended up with No Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli. ☹️
Otherwise it’s perfect!
So do you just add the bouillon cube whole and dry without mixing it with water first?
Excited to try! This was my favorite too 😩