Italian-American · easy
Creamy garlic chicken spaghetti
Spiced seared chicken strips tossed through spaghetti in a creamy garlic and chilli sauce made from milk, cornflour, a little mozzarella and starchy pasta water. No cream, no butter.
Makes 1 · Weekend 5 min · On the day 15 min · Freezer
The video’s version isn’t the same as ours; follow the amounts below for the numbers above.
Ingredients
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Method
Sunday cook-up: this chicken is marinated Saturday and seared with Monday's shawarma strips; box the cooled strips and freeze.
On the day, FIRST: a pot of salted water on high with the lid on (8-10 min, hands-free).
Water boiling: add the spaghetti, 9-10 min until just soft; Keep 1/2 cup pasta water.
With 4 min of pasta left: 1/2 tsp oil in the pan on medium, garlic and chilli flakes 30 s (do not brown the garlic).
Add the thawed chicken strips, toss 2-3 min until steaming.
Whisk the milk-water with the cornflour, pour in with the chilli garlic sauce; stir 1 min until it thickens.
Add the drained spaghetti, cheese, pepper and 2-3 tbsp pasta water; toss 1 min until glossy and creamy.
Freeze & reheat
- Freeze
- Cooked strips only, box. Label: 'FRI - DINNER - Chicken strips for spaghetti (COOKED) - toss in sauce 3 min - made Sun __/__'
- Thaw & reheat
- Fridge Thursday night; heat in the sauce until steaming. Pasta is always boiled fresh, never frozen.
- Keeps
- Cooked strips: freezer 2 months, fridge 2 days after thawing
Why it tastes good: Milk thickened with cornflour plus a splash of starchy pasta water gives the creamy sauce that cream and butter normally make.
Nutrition, per portion
Creamy garlic chicken spaghetti
Cook-up: this is prepped Sunday 09:58
Adapted from TASTIEST High Protein Creamy Chicken Alfredo! ONLY 542 CALS by Jalalsamfit (1.78M views, 105.6K likes (checked 15 Sep 2026); light cream cheese replaced by cornflour-thickened milk, Italian herbs by shawarma spice and chilli garlic sauce).
Photo: Close-Up Photography Of Pasta With White Sauce by Engin Akyurt, Pexels License (Pexels).
