Master one of Olive Garden’s most beloved dishes right in your kitchen! Our copycat Chicken Scampi recipe perfectly recreates the restaurant’s tender chicken, colorful peppers, and signature white wine sauce you can’t resist. Best of all? Our version costs a fraction of the restaurant price and serves your whole family.
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Table of Contents
What Makes the Olive Garden Chicken Scampi Pasta So Good?
Chicken scampi is similar to shrimp scampi, except it’s more kid-friendly and economical. You can use chicken tenders, typically less expensive and sure to please the entire family.
The recipe uses many of the same flavor components as the original shrimp scampi, meaning you can enjoy sauteed veggies and delicious sauce with your juicy chicken.
It’s the perfect way to upgrade plain-old chicken tenders or breasts into an exquisite, memorable meal! Try this recipe to make your weeknights more exciting.
Why This Copycat Recipe Works
- Restaurant-quality results at home
- It uses the exact same fresh vegetables as Olive Garden
- Recreates their signature sauce technique
- More generous portion size than the restaurant
- Customizable spice levels
- A perfect balance of garlic and wine
Chicken Scampi Ingredients
This copycat Olive Garden chicken scampi recipe uses fresh ingredients, combining the wonderful flavors of peppers and red onions. Here’s what you will need:
- Chicken Tenders or Chicken Breasts – this is the main protein, tenders provide a better texture than chicken breasts
- All-purpose flour – Creates signature light breading
- Milk – Helps breading adhere
- Salt & Pepper – Enhance the overall flavors
- Red, Green & Orange Bell Peppers – Provides color and flavor
- Red Onion – Adds sweetness and texture
- Garlic – Essential flavor base
- Pasta – Spaghetti or Fettuccini
- White Wine – Creates classic scampi flavor
- Heavy Cream – Provides richness and body
- Italian Seasonings – Authentic herb blend
How to Make Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
- Bread the chicken first. Dredge the chicken tenders in flour, milk, salt, and pepper. Let them rest while you prepare the pasta and vegetables.
- Prepare the pasta according to the package instructions.
- While the pasta is boiling, saute the peppers, onions, and garlic in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Remove the veggies from the skillet and add the chicken.
- Cook the chicken until browned on both sides and done. Once the chicken is ready, remove the tenders from the skillet.
- Prepare the wine sauce for the peppers and chicken in the same skillet.
- Add the pasta and veggies back into the sauce and stir to combine.
- Serve the pasta with chicken tenders on top. If desired, sprinkle parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley over the dish.
Please scroll down to the recipe card to see my video on creating this dish!
Professional Tips for Perfect Results
Chicken Preparation
- Tenderizing:
- Pound to even thickness
- Pat dry before dredging
- Season flour well
- Breading Technique:
- Use one hand for wet, one for dry
- Let breading rest for 5 minutes
- Don’t overcrowd the pan
Sauce Secrets
- Wine Selection:
- Use drinking-quality wine
- Avoid cooking wine
- Chardonnay preferred
- Cream Integration:
- Add slowly while stirring
- Keep heat medium-low
- Watch for proper thickness
Perfect Sides for Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
The classic way to serve Chicken Scampi is over pasta. Angel hair pasta or another thin pasta is ideal.
Of course, there is no rule saying that you can’t enjoy this dish alone. If you are going this route, either garlic bread or homemade Olive Garden breadsticks is the perfect way to sop up all that delicious sauce!
No matter how you serve your Chicken Scampi, consider adding caprese bruschetta or Marinated Mozzarella Salad as a starter or side.
Storing Chicken Scampi
Olive Garden Scampi sauce leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about five days. Reheat gently over low heat. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of wine or milk.
The cream, lemon juice, and wine in the recipe make it difficult to freeze the Chicken Scampi without losing quality.
How To Reheat Homemade Chicken Scampi
I suggest reheating this dish on the stovetop. Ideally, reheat gently over low to medium heat. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of wine or milk.
Cover the pan to prevent moisture loss! Flip the chicken occasionally and remove it from the heat once the internal temperature is 165 degrees.
You can reheat pasta in the microwave if you made pasta and stored it separately. Otherwise, it might turn soggy if you reheat it with the chicken and sauce.
Do you like the Olive Garden restaurant? Try these Olive Garden copycat recipes
- Olive Garden Fettuccine Recipe
- Olive Garden Ziti al Forno
- Italian Mozzarella Sticks
- Crispy Ravioli
- Oven Baked Pasta Olive Garden
- Olive Garden Dishes
Delicious Italian Recipes for You to Make
- Pizza Hut Pastas – Cavatini
- Make Italian Sausage
- Red Lobster Seafood Pasta
- Risotto Recipe – Instant Pot
- Italian Rice Balls with Meat
- Eggs Pasta
- Chicken Limone
- Carrabba’s Dipping Sauce
Be sure to check out more of my Olive Garden copycat recipes and the best homemade Italian food.
Did you make and love this recipe? Please review it below and share your creations by tagging me on Instagram!
Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt + extra divided use
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup milk
- 1 pound chicken tenders
- 4 tablespoons olive oil divided use
- 1/2 green bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 orange bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 pound pasta prepared according to package directions
Instructions
- Set up a breading station: Place the flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the pepper into a shallow dish and mix well with a fork. Place the milk into another shallow dish. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet.
- Dredge the chicken in the flour, dip it into the milk, and then dredge again in the flour. Place the breaded chicken on the wire rack to rest for 10 minutes before cooking.
- While the chicken is resting, place 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and season with a light sprinkling of salt. Sauté until the peppers begin to brown. Remove the vegetables from skillet.
- Place the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the hot skillet. Add the chicken and cook for 5 to 7 minutes on each side until the chicken has browned. Remove the chicken from the skillet.
- Deglaze the skillet with the white wine, using a spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Allow the wine to reduce by two-thirds.
- Add the Italian seasoning and the heavy cream, and mix well.
- Return the vegetables to the skillet along with the cooked pasta and stir. Plate the pasta and sauce, placing a few pieces of cooked chicken on each plate.
Video
Notes
- If you do not drink wine, you may substitute it with low sodium chicken broth.
- When choosing wine for this recipe, I would choose an inexpensive Chardonnay or another dry white wine. Pick something that is drinkable.
- Another substitute idea would be to use dry sherry when a recipe calls for white wine. You don’t have to worry about sherry going bad, in a couple of days. This stays good for a couple of months.
- You can make this a meatless dish by leaving out the chicken and replacing it with some mushrooms instead. Either way, this is going to be delicious.
Nutrition
Chicken Scampi Olive Garden Recipe FAQs
What Does Scampi-Style Mean?
Scampi style has come to mean any dish that combines butter, garlic, and an acidic ingredient such as wine or citrus juice. You can find a wide range of scampi-style dishes, including shrimp, scallops, squid, beef, and chicken.
What Is Scampi Sauce Made Of?
First, in Italian, scampi is plural for scampo, a type of shellfish commonly called a Dublin Bay Prawn or Norway Lobster in English.
A traditional scampi sauce in Italy is straightforward. Prawns are sauteed in butter and garlic, maybe with a squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine to help balance the richness and provide a bit of brightness. Many cooks add their twist to scampi recipes, such as cream, vegetables, and herbs.
What Kind of Wine Do I Use for Scampi?
You don’t need to spend a fortune on wine to cook scampi, but you should avoid cheap cooking wines.
Use a dry, crisp white wine such as a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chardonnay. A very dry Riesling or a Pinot Grigio is also an option. A good rule of thumb to help when choosing wines for cooking is to use whichever type you will serve alongside the dish.
How Do You Thicken Scampi Sauce?
Scampi sauce is not supposed to be overly thick, but if you feel yours is on the runny side, you can use a couple of methods to correct the problem.
The best way to thicken the sauce is by turning down the heat and simmering the cream for a few minutes longer before returning the chicken to the pan.
For a faster option, dissolve a teaspoon of cornstarch in an equal amount of water to make a slurry. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the sauce and simmer until thickened.
How Many Calories Are in Olive Garden’s Chicken Scampi?
According to Olive Garden’s nutritional menu, an order of Chicken Scampi has 1260 calories, with over half coming from fat. The copycat Olive Garden Chicken Scampi recipe contains slightly fewer calories.
Thank you so much for the recipe I made this a couple times my husband and family just loves it thank you for all your recipes I’m going to make it again tomorrow for my family’s dinner this is very good ????
Love the recipe. 10 minute prep and 10 minute cooking isn’t realistic. Cooking the chicken alone is 14 minutes and 10 for the drying post-dredge.
I’ve taken to chopping the vegetables and garlic earlier in the day. There’s still over 35 minutes in the kitchen. Regardless, the meal is a win with the family.
Let me update the times. I am glad you enjoyed the meal!
I didn’t find it too be either too bland, or too powerful tasting. It’s definitely a recipe one could use to tweak to their liking. Great groundwork for someone who wants to be creative, but also a great meal for someone who just wants to follow the recipe as is and be done! Great recipe! Thank you so much!
Thank you for the video. One of my favorite dishes. You made it look so very easy to make. I will give it a try!
i made this dish today and it was great, only thing is you need more sauce, just use more wine and more whipping cream, other than that love it love it love it, i added a little more salt and pepper to the sauce as well, but great recipe,
tastes almost like olive garden
I made this dish last night, as is, no alterations. Three words…bland, bland and bland! There are so many things wrong with this recipe when comparing to Olive Garden. Not nearly enough sauce for the amount of pasta and their is definately something missing from it regarding flavor. Second, for the chicken to have more flavor maybe it should be cooked WITH the peppers and onions, not by itself. My advise: If you are planning on trying this dish…go back to Google and look for the recipe elsewhere because this one doesn’t cut it.
Thank you for sharing your experience with this recipe. I am very sorry that you thought this recipe was bland, bland, and bland. I can imagine it was very disappointing for you.
Yes it does! This receipe was spot by on, add more wine or more cream if you want more sauce but the flavors are on point with OG for sure!
Joanne, you are right. The missing ingredient is chicken stock. My comment just below yours was from November 2015. It pays to read the comments. Today many ladies don’t cook all that much and don’t know any different. There are other Chicken Scampi recipes out there that are more accurate.
I made this for dinner tonight. While the sauce was simmering, I tasted it and something was missing. I thought “just wine and cream for the sauce”?? It dawned on me that CHICKEN STOCK was the missing ingredient, so I went on line and found other Chicken Scampi recipes and they all use Chicken stock, so I added the proportionate amount of Chicken stock and it was perfect. Did you mean to add this ingredient to your recipe or do you cook it this way? I seriously suggest everyone add the stock. I also doubled the sauce because I don’t like it dry. Pasta soaks up the sauce fast, so you could even triple it and add additional sauce after it’s plated. I also added alot more garlic ie. about 6-8 cloves. Thank you for helping me find this recipe which is my favorite Olive Garden dish!
How many calories are in this meal?
As the portions I have written it looks like about 1190 calories. You can see detailed info here http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Olive-Garden-Chicken-Scampi-965676?columns=3&position=1%2F6
I love this recipe! I add a bit of basil pesto, and a half a cup of Parmesan cheese. Delicious! Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to trying out this recipe on my family tomorrow evening ♥
I tried recipe watched video…very easy to complete…..and tastes GREAT. Two thumbs up!!!!
Thanks for the recipes. They are terrific ( especially the Olive Garden ones). Your demonstrations make cooking favorite dishes easy.
This may be a silly question. But when it says white wine, what kind do you use? Or does it matter?
I would use a dry white wine. You could use a Chardonney, a pino grigio, or something similar. Does this help?
I kind of messed up on this since I used apple wine and it gave the sauce a sweet taste. But when I added more cream and let it simmer a bit it kind of cooked down.
Do you happen to have a recipe for Outback’s Walkabout Creamy Onion Soup. We use to go there just for the soup, but they discontinued it. Thanks. The Chicken Scampi looks delicious. Can’t wait to try it.
I made this last night and it was very good! Can’t give it a big “thumb’s up” but wish I could. Great job!
What kept the recipe from giving it a big “thumb’s up”?
Hi I’m going to attempt to make this dish for my husband he loves it so much I just hope it turns out as good as yours thanks for sharing your recipe!!!
looks good got to try it
Love the recipe! I use fresh parsley and a little fresh basil in mine.Thanks so much!!
Love the addition of the fresh herbs.
Came out great! I would double the sauce recipe since I like my pasta wetter than how it turned out
I always like a lot of extra sauce so much better.