My mother-in-law literally lives for Olive Garden, and this is her all-time favorite dish to order. Wouldn’t you know it, my kindergartener has inherited her Olive Garden-obsession genes? We eat A LOT of noodles in our house because my kids love them
..and a pasta dish is always a good way to get my kids to eat anything.
So I wondered if I could figure out how to lighten-up Olive Garden chicken scampi so it doesn’t have 1,500 calories and 84092348932905898230 mg sodium in it? I think this was a success; I achieved what I wanted to.
An air fryer isn’t a must-have, but it’s a lot of fun to play with (I own this one). I suspect that Olive Garden deep-fries or pan-fries those delicious amazing chicken tenders they put in the chicken scampi, and I thought air-frying was the best way to get the same effect without adding too much extra fat.
Healthier Olive Garden Chicken Scampi
Equipment
- 1 air fryer
Ingredients
Chicken tenders:
- 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken tenders
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 small pinch of salt
Scampi pasta with peppers & onions:
- 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
- ½ tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ red bell pepper (thinly sliced)
- ½ green bell pepper (thinly sliced)
- ½ small red onion (thinly sliced)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 tablespoon flour
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ounce Parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)
- 2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley and basil
Instructions
Cook the chicken:
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 °F.
- Combine the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, pepper and salt in a shallow bowl.
- Dredge the chicken tenders in the flour, turning to make sure the chicken is fully coated. Shake off the excess.
- Arrange the chicken in the basket of an air fryer and spritz it with nonstick spray, or an olive oil sprayer
- Cook the chicken in the air fryer for 8 to 9 minutes. Flip the chicken over, give it another spray of olive oil, and cook for another 8 minutes on the other side.
Cook the pasta, vegetables & scampi sauce:
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile, heat ½ tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
- Cook the sliced onion and bell pepper until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 more minute.
- Add the flour and stir it around for 1 more minute.
- Add ¼ cup of dry white wine to deglaze the skillet. Be sure to scrape up any browned bits that've stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Cook the wine for 1 minute to ensure the alcohol has burned away.
- Add the chicken broth, basil and oregano to the skillet. Turn the heat up to medium-high until the broth boils, then turn to the heat down low and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so, or until whenever the noodles are done cooking.
- Toss the noodles with the sauce, the shredded Parmesan, and the fresh herbs
- Add the chicken on top of the pasta — you might want to stir the chicken into the pasta and get it coated with some of the sauce.
