Copycat Noodles & Co’s Penne Rosa with Parmesan Crusted Chicken

A lot of the chain restaurants have gone wayyyyy downhill over the years (ahem, Chipotle) but Noodles & Co is still pretty solid. My favorite 2 dishes there are the Pad Thai with Seasoned Tofu and the Penne Rosa with Parmesan Crusted Chicken. The Penne Rosa is actually not too hard to make, as long as you aren’t trying to make your own Rosa sauce from scratch. If you wanna do that, go do that, it’ll probably uplevel this big time, but it comes out good with just a couple of jar sauces mixed together.

Ingredients

• 1lb Chicken Breasts or Tenders
• Box of Penne Noodles
• 24oz Jar of Garlic Onion Tomato Pasta Sauce (Prego is Fine, stick to one with a lot of Garlic/Onion in it, or just the plain Tomato sauce)
• 24oz Jar of Parmesan Garlic Sauce (Jar of Prego or similar also, Alfredo sauce would work too but might be more expensive and I like one that has some garlic in it, but you could always just saute your own garlic as well – but you’re gonna want the parmesan creaminess of this sauce added to the red sauce)
• 1/4 cup Sriracha Sauce (optional, it adds a great flavor in additional to some subtle heat, so give it a try)
• 2 Roma Tomatoes
• 1 Fresh Red Onion
• Fresh Sliced Mushrooms
• Fresh Baby Spinach (canned or frozen spinach would not work for this)
• Tub of Shredded Parmesan or Tub of Feta Cheese (I usually go for the Parm)
• 1 Egg (optional for chicken coating)
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Cup of Bread Crumbs
• 1 Cup Grated Parmesan (optional for chicken coating)
• 1-2 tbsp of Olive Oil

Directions

Get Pot Boiling for Noodles

1. Get a pot of water up to a boil for the Noodles, you can go to the next steps while that’s coming up to a boil

Get Sauce Simmering

1. Combine Tomato Sauce and Parmesan Garlic Sauce in a Sauce Pan
2. Add 1/4 cup of Sriracha sauce (optional or it can just be put on top at the end to taste – the vinegar and pickled garlic in the Sriracha is what makes a big difference here, you could play around with just adding those things if you want to avoid the heat from the chili peppers in it but I think they add a lot as well)
3. Cover and warm up the sauce on low heat, leave it to keep warm until the end
4. Stir occasionally

Prep Vegetables

1. Slice up mushrooms
2. Dice up tomatoes
3. Dice up Onions
4. Chop up the baby spinach just a little, not too small, or you could just throw the full leaves in to the dish
5. You can mix the mushrooms and tomatoes together in a large mixing bowl at this time, but keep the tomatoes and spinach off to the side for now – we only want to warm those up in the final mix

Prep Chicken

1. Slice up the chicken breasts into 1″ wide strips
2. If you aren’t doing the parmesan crust, just season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and skip steps 3-8.
3. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of breadcrumbs and 1 cup of grated parmesan
4. Add about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning to that mixture
5. Add about a tablespoon of garlic powder to that mixture
6. Add a good amount of cracks of salt and pepper to the mixture
7. Crack an egg and whisk it in another bowl
8. Coat chicken pieces in egg and then in the parmesan breadcrumb mixture

Cook Time

1. Get a cast iron or nonstick skillet heating up with some olive oil to coat the bottom on medium heat
2. Get your noodles into the boiling pot and boil according to the box directions, it’s usually 11-13 minutes
3. Fry up the onions and mushrooms in the cast iron for a few minutes, when done put them into a large mixing bowl
4. Fry the chicken strips, 3-5 minutes per side

The Final Mix

To the large mixing bowl of onions and mushrooms, add in:

• the cooked noodles
• the tomatoes (cold)
• the baby spinach – about an equal amount (to the tomatoes/onions)
• enough of the rosa sauce to coat everything, don’t get it too soupy

Plating

• Put an individual portion of the final mix above onto a plate
• Top with some of the chicken slices
• Top everything with some shredded parmesan (to taste)
• Top that with some Sriracha sauce (to taste)
• Enjoy!!!