This healthier penne alla vodka with chicken is made with no heavy cream! Pureed roasted vegetables are my secret for a creamy vodka sauce that tastes just as good as the original. High protein, with 42 grams of protein per serving.
Healthy Penne alla Vodka with Chicken
Penne alla vodka is an Italian classic I wanted to recreate at home but with some changes to lighten it up. I skipped the cream, swapping roasted zucchini and onion which I pureed into the sauce. For more protein, I served this over protein pasta and added chicken breast. Tommy, who orders vodka sauce any chance he gets gave this two thumbs up! For more vodka sauce recipes, try this Penne Alla Vodka with prosciutto and half and half or my Spicy Vodka Chicken Parmesan.
Healthy Penne alla Vodka Ingredients
- Chicken Breast: You’ll need six thin chicken cutlets. See more chicken breast recipes here.
- Seasoning: Season the chicken with salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.
- Onion and Garlic: Cut one onion into half-inch chunks and smash six garlic cloves.
- Zucchini: Roasted zucchini is pureed to make the sauce creamy.
- Shallots: Finely mince one shallot, for flavor.
- Salt and Pepper season the vodka sauce.
- Crushed Tomatoes: I love Tuttorosso’s crushed tomatoes, but buy whatever you can find.
- Broth: Use chicken or vegetable broth.
- Parmesan: Add freshly grated Parmesan to the sauce, and top your bowl of pasta with some more.
- Tomato Paste: Before adding the vodka, cook the tomato paste for a couple of minutes to toast it.
- Red Pepper Flakes: Sprinkle the sauce with red pepper for a bit of a kick.
- Vodka: Use a good-quality vodka for the sauce, such as Tito’s.
- Basil: Simmer the sauce with a sprig of basil and garnish with more.
- Pasta: I used Barilla protein pasta, gluten-free pasta will also work.
How to Make Penne alla Vodka with Chicken
This healthier vodka sauce recipe is creamy without using any heavy cream. Here’s how to make it:
- Season the chicken with olive oil, salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and black pepper.
- Roast Vegetables: Toss the zucchini, onion, and garlic with oil, salt, and pepper, and roast on a sheet pan until tender and browned.
- Blend the roasted veggies with crushed tomatoes, broth, and parmesan until smooth.
- Boil salted water for the pasta.
- Cook the chicken on high heat on a grill pan until cooked through.
- Tomato Paste and Shallots: Sauté the minced shallot and salt in a Dutch oven or deep, large skillet. Stir in the tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook for a minute or two.
- Vodka: If you have a gas stove, turn it off or remove your pot from the heat. Pour in the vodka, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and return the pot to the heat. Cook until most of the liquid reduces. Then add the pureed vegetables, basil, and black pepper, and simmer for five minutes.
- Cook the penne until al dente according to package directions. Reserve a cup of pasta water before draining the pot.
- How to Serve: Remove the basil sprig from the sauce and pour in the reserved water a little at a time if needed. Toss the vodka sauce with the penne and transfer to six bowls. Top each one with chicken and parmesan.
Variations
- Chicken: If you can’t find chicken cutlets, buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them vertically with scissors to make thin pieces.
- Meat: Swap chicken with Italian chicken or turkey sausage.
- Vegetarian Penne alla Vodka: Omit the grilled chicken.
- Seasoning: If you don’t have Italian seasoning, replace it with whatever dried herbs you have, like basil, oregano, and parsley.
- Vegetables: Add spinach to the vodka sauce.
- Zucchini: Substitute zucchini with yellow squash.
- Spiciness: Omit red pepper flakes for a milder dish, or add more for an extra kick.
- Pasta: Sub penne with any short pasta shape, like rotini, fusilli, or orecchiette. You can also use whole wheat or gluten-free pasta if you prefer.
What to Serve with Penne alla Vodka
Since this penne alla vodka has chicken and zucchini, it’s a complete meal by itself. However, here are some side dish ideas if you want to serve it with a veggie:
Storage
Store penne alla vodka with chicken for up to four days in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also freeze it for up to three months and thaw it in the refrigerator before microwaving it until warm.
Penne alla Vodka FAQ
Penne alla vodka sauce is primarily made of tomatoes, cream, and vodka. My healthy vodka sauce recipe has no heavy cream and instead uses a roasted vegetable puree to thicken the sauce and give it a wonderful texture.
Vodka is what distinguishes penne alla vodka from other creamy pasta dishes. It makes the creamy tomato sauce cohesive and enhances its flavor.
The alcohol cooks out of the sauce, making it safe for children and people who don’t drink alcohol to eat. You can swap vodka with white wine, or if you prefer not to cook with alcohol, omit it. It’ll be good either way!
More Pasta Recipes You’ll Love
- Penne with Brussels Sprouts and Meat Ragu
- Instant Pot Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs
- Baby Pasta Shells with Asparagus and Marinara
- Turkey Sausage and Tomato Sauce over Pasta
- Spaghetti Carbonara
Penne alla Vodka with Chicken
Ingredients
Grilled Chicken:
- 6 thin sliced chicken cutlets, about 4 ounces each
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- olive oil spray
Pasta:
- 1 medium onion, cut 1/2-inch chunks
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 12 ounces zucchini, peeled and cut in 1/4-inch slices (from 2 small or 1 large)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 shallots, minced fine
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided, plus more for the cooking liquid
- 15 oz can crushed tomatoes, I love tuttorosso
- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh grated, plus more for serving
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 3 tablespoons good quality vodka
- 1 sprig fresh basil, plus more for garnish
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 lb dry penne pasta
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Season the chicken with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and black pepper.
- Toss the zucchini with garlic, onion, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper and spread on a sheet pan. Roast 25 minutes, until tender and browned, tossing halfway. Once done, transfer the vegetables to a large blender and add the crushed tomatoes, broth and parmesan. Puree until very smooth.
- Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water, salt generously, and bring to a boil.
- Heat a grill pan on high heat. Spray with oil and cook the chicken, 2 to 3 minutes per side until cooked through. Set aside on a cutting board and slice.
- In a Dutch oven, deep large skillet or pot, add the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium heat. Saute the minced shallot with 1/2 tsp salt until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, and red pepper flakes and cook 1 to 2 minutes to toast the tomato paste
- When the tomato paste smells caramelized, it’s time to add the vodka.
- If you have a gas stove, turn it off or remove the pot from the heat. Pour in the vodka (it will sizzle!), use your spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and return the pot to medium heat. Cook until most of the liquid reduces, about 2 minutes then add the pureed vegetables along with the basil and black pepper and bring to a gentle simmer, 5 to 6 minutes while you cook the pasta.
- Meanwhile, drop the pasta into the boiling water, give it a stir, and cook according to package instructions. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the water, then drain the pasta.
- Remove the basil from the sauce and add reserved pasta water, if needed. to loosen.
- Toss with the cooked pasta and transfer to 6 bowls. Top each with grilled chicken, chopped basil, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and serve.
This was absolutely delicious! 2 medium organic zucchinis were 12 oz for me. I would definitely buy 2 to be safe.
The sauce was absolutely amazing and my picky 8 year old ate 2 bowls!
Perfect!!
This turned out so well!!! It was so delicious and no one missed the heavy cream at all. We all loved it and I will definitely be making it again. Great recipe!!
Awesome sauce / needed to use my zucchini so was perfect! Love that it didn’t have cream like most recipes.
Wow! This is so good! My family loved it and I have a very picky eater. No one knew there were bonus veggies in the sauce. Very creamy and flavorful. I used Aleppo pepper instead of the red pepper flakes, which added a little heat but not too spicy.
Perfect!
Loved this so much!! It was delicious. I added extra seasoning (Italian) but it was amazing. Next time I’ll do less red pepper because it was a little spicy for my kids but the flavor is delicious.
This is definitely a new favorite! I made it for my parents and we all agreed. It has just enough kick and a whole ton of flavor! Another great success from Skinytaste.
Thanks Anna!
Am I missing something? Where/when do you add the chicken stock and the crushed tomatoes? I made this last night so added with the vegetables but still don’t see it in the instructions.
Instruction #3 🙂
This was pretty good. It’s not earth shattering because it is pasta and red sauce after all, BUT it’s definitely a major step up from plain red sauce and pasta AND it has the added bonus of hidden veggies in the sauce. My only complaint is that it’s a bit spicy. It wasn’t too spicy for me (I enjoyed it) but my kids were complaining a bit of their mouths hurting. If I make it again, I’ll be cutting the red pepper flakes down. Thanks for the recipe!
made it, everyone loved it ,could not believe the sauce.
Wow! I make 3-4 Skinnytaste recipes per week and this one is topping the charts! Picky husband approved. PS, the Skinnytaste meal planner is life changing.
Thanks Mary!
I thought I would miss the ‘cream’ aspect in this recipe (I love cream sauces but my hips don’t! LOL! )
I was wrong! This recipie is amazing! Delicious and satisfying! There’s only 2 of us, so I froze the remainder for another day!
Thank you Gina for your amazing recipes!
4/5 kids loved it but my husband, the true Italian foodie, loved it the most. I was positive I had vodka but didn’t so I chose to use white wine. Winner! thanks so much!
Great!
Is there anything you can use other than vodka?
Wonder if this could be made with some added chickpeas/garbanzo beans for extra protein and fiber?
The taste was great, but this recipe is labor intensive. I should have know with 11 steps and at least 5 pots and pans involved. It took me way longer than 20 minutes to prep and 40 minutes to prepare. I needed to enlist my partner for help to keep everything going and to avoid burning anything. It was our Friday night at home date night so preparing the meal was part of the fun. We enjoyed our better than restaurant quality meal, although I had to draw the line–don’t even think I’d add making a side dish. Doing dishes and cleaning up the colossal mess in the kitchen with oldies playing wrapped up our date.
Question… could you wait to puree the vegetables with the tomato sauce mixture? My thought is that I might be able to dump the roasted vegetables and tomatoes into the Dutch oven and use my immersion blender instead of a regular blener.
Sure!
I’m a college student trying to do some healthy meal prep and this was so much better than what I usually make! I will say though, it’s high effort. I think even if you wanted to dumb it down and just simmer the roasted zucchini/onion in the crushed tomato/tomato paste for a while, it might turn out just as good. Overall though I like it a lot and might make a toned-down version again soon!
So glad you liked it, yes this one does take the extra step to roast but so worth it.
Delicious! Only had a small zucchini and could only find yellow squash at my closest store so went with that and it was great! Didn’t have fresh basil so I skipped altogether but next time I want to make sure I use basil!
This was delicious! Definitely will make this again, lots of flavor and perfect for controlling my cholesterol level. I left off the chicken and made it a vegetarian night.
This was incredibly flavorful! I was so excited to come across a recipe for vodka sauce that did not include heavy cream. Your balance of flavors and directions are spot on. Thank you for yet another delicious weeknight meal!
Why do you preheat the oven? I don’t see that anything goes in the oven.
The vegetables are roasted.
The taste is quite good but this is way too labour intensive for me.
So sorry, Gina, but I don’t plan on making it again.
My husband was shocked that it had zucchini in it. Everyone loved it. This is a hit. I will be making it again.
Perfect!
Delicious. This is my husband’s favorite meal and we were excited to find a lighter version of it.
So creamy and tasty without heavy cream! My family enjoyed it and my husband did the dishes so I didn’t mind using many pans and the blender!
Amazing!
Great recipe! Everyone loved it, even the kids!
Perfect!
Oh my goodness Gina! I don’t know how you do it over and over again but you knocked another one right out of the park!! This was so delicious, I can’t praise this recipe enough. I absolutely love that you pureed vegetables to thicken the sauce. I’ve been pureeing cauliflower to thicken soups and it works beautifully. Thank you for another wonderful addition to my dinner repertoire!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I made this tonight for my hubby and I, and we absolutely loved it! I think it was a bit more work than I usually tackle, but it was worth it.
Love it ! Can I freeze the sauce ?
Delicious! I didn’t have fresh basil, so I added 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil.
You are brilliant! This is delicious! Thank you for such a fantastic and healthy recipe that the whole family loved!
This was delicious! I can’t wait to make it again, especially in the summer when the zucchini starts going crazy!
I made it with the chicken for dinner, and had just the pasta (no chicken) for lunch. Amazing both ways!
Very, very good. My picky 9 year old even ate it.