Slow Cooker Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken Pasta
Slow Cooker Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken Pasta is a family favorite at dinnertime! Made with Nando’s amazing Peri-Peri sauce, cream cheese, and some basic pantry items, this heavenly chicken pasta is a cinch to make. Just add the slow cooked chicken and its flavorful sauce to your favorite pasta and dinner is done!
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I’m not lying when I say that this Slow Cooker Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken Pasta is one of my family’s favorite meals!
They get so excited when they walk into the house and the smell of this in the slow cooker greets them!
Plus, it’s pasta, the ultimate comfort food!
Another win is just how easy it is to make. It’s as simple as adding chicken to a slow cooker with cream cheese, broth, seasonings, and the delectable Nando’s Peri-Peri Sauce.
Serve the irresistible, creamy, slightly tangy sauce and chicken over your favorite pasta and dinner is done. Couldn’t be easier or more delicious!
Nando’s Peri-Peri Chicken isn’t all across the country yet, so I didn’t become aware of this amazing restaurant and its wonderful food until we ate it on the east coast.
Game-changing-chicken. Well, yes, the chicken is great, but it’s actually all about the Peri-Peri sauce they slather on their chicken. We buy garlic bread when we eat there, just so we can dip it in the sauce!
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What is Nando’s Peri-Peri Sauce?
It’s a super flavorful and versatile sauce made from Peri-Peri peppers (also known as African Bird’s Eye Chili Peppers) garlic, lemon, onion, vinegar, spices, and oil.
Its gorgeous, vibrant orange color is a hint of all the good things to come when you taste it. The sauce is deliciously tangy, garlicky, and piquant, but not as vinegary as a traditional hot sauce.
Nando’s Peri-Peri Sauce is available in Mild, Medium, Hot, XX Hot, Garlic, Lemon & Herb (extra mild), and Coconut & Lemon.
You can order a variety pack of different Nando’s sauces HERE on Amazon.
My favorite flavor, and the sauce I make this pasta with, is “Hot”, but “Garlic” is fantastic too!
If you like extremely spicy food like my husband and kids do, you may want to opt for their favorite, “XX Hot”.
Ingredients needed to make this recipe (scroll down to recipe card for complete recipe):
- Chicken breasts
- Nando’s Peri-Peri Sauce
- Cream cheese
- Chicken broth
- Dried oregano
- Bay leaf
- Parmesan cheese (garnish)
- Pepper
- Pasta
How to serve Nando’s pasta:
The creamy Nando’s sauce and chicken is best served over pasta on your plate, not with the pasta added to the slow cooker.
This is for several reasons:
1) Pasta in a slow cooker has a tendency to get overcooked and mushy.
2) People like different amounts of sauce on their pasta. I’m a saucy girl and want ALL the sauce, where my husband prefers a more dry pasta. Leaving the pasta and sauce separate ensures everyone gets what they want.
Looking for more slow cooker meals? Here are some fan favorites:
- Easy Slow Cooker Chile Colorado
- Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
- Slow Cooker Beef Braciole (shown below)
- Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo
- Slow Cooker Sausage Chickpea Soup
Another delicious creamy pasta is Pappadeaux Cajun Pasta. It’s made with pork tenderloin, mushrooms, and lots of fresh vegetables in a creamy Cajun sauce!
How else can I use Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce?
We like to re-create the meal we order at the restaurant, at home.
So I bake or grill boneless, skinless chicken breasts that have the sauce slathered on it, and serve the chicken with garlic bread and some roasted veggies, and of course, more sauce for dipping!
We also use it for dipping baked, store-bought chicken tenders. Basically, if you have a need for a flavorful, zesty sauce, you can’t go wrong with Nando’s!
How long is the slow cooker chicken good for?
Keep the leftover chicken and sauce in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
Because of the dairy in the recipe, I do not recommend freezing it.
NOTES:
- My favorite type of pasta for this is rotini. 12 ounces = approximately 4 1/2 cups of dried rotini pasta.
- Full-fat cream cheese is recommended because I find that it melts better than lower fat versions.
Flavorful Eats is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Slow Cooker Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker 5 quart or larger
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
- black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 9.2 ounce bottle of Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce
- 1.5 cups chicken broth
- 8 oz. full-fat cream cheese
- grated parmesan cheese for garnish
- 12 oz. cooked pasta do not add to slow cooker
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in the slow cooker and season them with black pepper and dried oregano. Drop a bay leaf in there and add the bottle of Nando's sauce, chicken broth, and cream cheese. Cook on low for 4 hours or until the chicken is fully cooked and 165 degrees. Shred the chicken into chunks and stir the sauce, breaking up the cream cheese until the sauce is smooth. Taste for any needed salt or pepper.
- I do not like adding my pasta to the sauce, I put pasta in individual bowls and pour the chicken and sauce over the pasta (see notes). Garnish with some parmesan cheese, and red pepper flakes if desired. Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? Rate it and let me know in the comments below! ♥
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I cooked this and the family loved it.
I love this recipe! I have it with baked potato instead of pasta and it’s awesome!
Having this tonight. Tried it a few weeks ago and it was lovely.
Making this tonite for the third time. This is one of a very few crockpot recipes that my husband looks forward to. very easy and versatile, thanks!
I’m so happy to hear that your husband looks forward to this! Which Nando’s sauce do you guys like best? We like Medium, Hot, and Garlic :)
I clicked the link above to order the Sauce from Amazon but there are multiple varieties to choose from…which would did you use for this recipe?
Hi there! I use either Medium, Hot, or Garlic. We like spicy food though. If you don’t, I would go with Mild. Enjoy!
Absolutely amazing!
We loved it!
I tried this a few weeks ago, and we’ve loved it so much, it has become our new favourite dish. We have made it weekly since.
Thanks for sharing it.
Spicy and delicious but not too hot
Nando’s sauce is the perfect sauce to go with this!
I don’t have access to Nando’s Sauces but my neighbor made me a delicious habanero sauce from peppers she grew. I wonder if I could sub in the sauce I have to make your dish?
Hi there! This recipe was specifically developed for the use of a 9.2 ounce bottle of Nando’s Peri-Peri Sauce, so I wouldn’t substitute anything else. You can order the Nando’s sauce through the link in the post though :)