This one pan pollo a la crema recipe is a delicious dish that combines tender chicken, flavorful vegetables, and a creamy sauce. Perfect for a quick and easy weeknight meal!
My friend was telling me about her weekend with her mom and how they always order this delicious creamy chicken whenever they go out for Mexican food and I was like, hold up, what creamy chicken?! I’ve seriously never heard of it!
We ended up chatting all afternoon about what it must be made with, what it’s really called (was it pollo con crema, pollo a la crema or pollo de crema?!) and then I laid awake, like always, unable to get the recipe out of my head.
It’s become one of our new staples and I cannot comment enough on how easy this dinner recipe is. If you want fast, cheap, affordable, delicious, and family friendly, it’s all about the creamy chicken!
What is Pollo a la Crema?
Pollo a la Crema, or creamed chicken, is a South American dish that consists of tender chunks of chicken, sauteed bell peppers, onions and mushrooms all cooked in a creamy flavorful sauce. It is usually served with warm flour tortillas.
Ingredients Needed for Pollo a la Crema
These ingredients are simple and easy to find. The only item that might be a little out of the ordinary is the Mexican crema which can be found in the refrigerator section for the Mexican specialty foods like fresh salsa and chorizo. Here is what you will need:
For the Chicken
- Chicken Breasts: boneless, skinless
- Seasonings: salt and pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, chili powder
- Olive Oil
For the Rest of the Dish
- Green Bell Pepper
- Red or Orange Bell Pepper
- White Onion
- Baby Bella Mushrooms: or white button mushrooms work fine as well and if you’re not a mushroom fan, just omit them!
- Mexican Crema: see section below for more details
- Sour Cream
- Smoked Paprika
- Salt and Pepper
- Cilantro
The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
What is Crema?
Crema is the Mexican version of French crème fraîche, a little bit tangy and creamy. It is slightly soured and thickened cream, milder and less thick than American sour cream. The flavor is a lot more mild in my opinion and a touch buttery. You will find it in the meat and Mexican ingredients section of your grocery store. There’s not really a great substitute for it in this recipe, so try your best to find it!
How to Make Pollo con Crema
This skillet Italian sausage and peppers with whole-wheat penne is the perfect home cooked meal and it’s all in one pot which makes clean up a breeze!
This dish is a family favorite for us! And it’s weird to say that because I have picky eaters (they are SO much better than they used to be), and usually peppers and onions aren’t on the “yes list” for picky eaters, but in this recipe, they just work! The flavor is bold, and everyone loves sausage and pasta!
When I need to get dinner on the table quickly, this is one of my go-to recipes. All you need is one pan and 30 minutes!
What Do I Need to Make Sausage and Peppers Penne?
Most of the ingredients in this dish are pantry staples, so all you will need at the grocery store are some sausage links, a couple of peppers and an onion. Here is a list of what you will need:
- Whole-wheat Penne Pasta – you can find this right by all the other pasta at the grocery store
- Italian Sausage – I generally go with mild uncooked sausage, but you could use spicy sausage or a sweet sausage depending on what you are craving
- Green Pepper – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices
- Red Pepper – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices, red peppers are a little sweeter than green peppers so they add another dimension of flavor
- Yellow Onion – use a sharp knife to slice the onion in the thin slices
- Red Wine (cooking wine) – we don’t drink alcohol so we cook with cooking wine, but feel free to use whichever you prefer
- Tomato Paste – a 6oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Tomato Sauce – an 8oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Water – thins out the sauce a little
- Italian Seasoning – a dried seasoning blend that you can buy at the grocery store that usually includes dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary, dried thyme and dried marjoram
- Sugar – enhances the flavors
- Salt – adds flavor
- Parmesan Cheese – great for a garnish to add an extra punch of flavor
The measurements for every ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. The detailed instructions for how to make this recipe are also in the recipe card.
Reasons You Will Love This Italian Sausage Recipe
Here are a few reasons that you are going to love this recipe:
- Easy: The ingredients are simple and easy to find. The recipe is made in one pot so cleanup is easy. The only techniques you need to know are slicing, sauteing and simmering. Nothing fancy here!
- Quick: I live for dinner recipes that come together in less than a half hour!
- Flavor: By sauteing the sausage in the pan first, it flavors the whole dish. The peppers and onions get flavored by the sausage and add their own flavors and then the tomato pasta and sauce with the Italian seasoning and red wine add all the flavor you need.
- Well rounded: This dish includes veggies, protein and carbs all in one pa
Sometimes the simplest recipe can taste the best! Linguica or kielbasa sausage and peppers only requires 5 ingredients and it doesn’t get any easier (or tastier) to get dinner on the table!
Cade spent 2 years serving as a missionary for our church, and he totally fell in love with the food there. I mean, how could you not, right?! It is SO good! I’m trying to add more delicious Brazilian dishes to our dinner rotation, and this linguica recipe is my latest! Cade says that it is spot on!
We used to visit a Brazilian restaurant every January here in Utah to celebrate Cade’s birthday but over the years it’s gone from delicious to downright terrible. So, I’ve started making more Brazilian recipes from home, kind of like our pao de queijo!
Linguica is so good but it can be a bit tricky to find so feel free to use any sausage like a kielbasa for example that you’d like! Just be sure to pair it with black beans and perfect white rice, or better yet, some feijoada!
Ingredients for Linguica Sausage and Peppers
Remember how 5 ingredients is all you need?! I am allllll about a recipe with minimal ingredient but still bold in flavor. Here is the list of things you will need:
- Linguica Sausage – a flavorful pork sausage that can be tricky to find sometimes, so you can substitute other sausages if you want – chorizo would be a good substitute or a kielbasa
- Mini Bell Peppers – I love how thin and sweet the mini bell peppers are, but you can totally use a full size bell pepper if you need to. I would do one yellow and one red.
- Green Bell Peppers – just remove the seeds and slice that baby nice and thin
- Red On
Sausage and peppers in the same dish is such a stellar combo! Toss in some crispy gnocchi and a luscious sauce, and you’ll be adding this quick and easy dinner to your menu this week!
Our 20 minute sausage and peppers gnocchi is actually a meal of forgotten things. I found myself standing at the fridge years and years ago staring into a bunch of random ingredients and nothing to pull it all together; a little chicken broth, a chunk of onion and peppers from a taco night, and these random sausages a friend had given us. Not really enough of anything to make a full meal, or so I thought.
I’ve seen sausage and peppers stuffed into hoagie rolls enough to know that I could probably do something similar but without bread or rolls in the house at the time I needed to get creative and as a newlywed that also required cheap. I did not have enough money to go buy a bunch of stuff but I did have a lone package of pasta.
Over the years we’ve changed up this recipe a gazillion times until a little white cooking wine and the switch from pasta to gnocchi brought it all home. This crispy gnocchi with peppers and onions recipe only takes 20 minutes though the first time may be a little longer as you get the hang of it. Once you’ve done it once it’s a breeze.
Cook this, plate it.
Cook that, plate it.
Crisp the gnocchi, plate it.
Add the first two plates and sauce ingredients back in, simmer the sauce and then throw in the gnocchi, seasoning to taste. That’s it!
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Typically, you see creamy sausage and peppers over pasta, but we are going to blow your mind with it served over creamy mashed potatoes!
This recipe is inspired by our whole wheat penne sausage and peppers. I had a little cream left in the fridge that I tossed into the sauce, and I loved the extra richness that the cream added!
We were in the middle of moving at the time and my kitchen was half packed. When I went to grab the penne, all my pasta was already packed, but my potatoes were still sitting in the pantry. I figured, why not?! And we absolutely LOVED the change in carb! I mean, you can’t go wrong with mashed potatoes!
What Do I Need For Creamy Sausage and Peppers?
I love a quick dinner recipe with simple ingredients! Here is your grocery shopping list with a quick explanation of each ingredient. I find it so helpful to get a little snapshot of what I’m going to need for a recipe before getting into all the details!
- Italian Sausage Links – you can get mild, sweet or spicy depending on what flavor you prefer
- Green Peppers – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices
- Red Pepper – remove the stem and seeds and slice into thin slices, red peppers are a little sweeter than green peppers so they add another dimension of flavor
- Yellow Onion – we prefer a yellow onion, sliced thin
- White Wine (cooking white wine) – we don’t drink alcohol so we cook with cooking wine, but feel free to use whichever you prefer, you can also use chicken broth if you don’t want to use wine at all
- Fire Roasted Tomatoes – adds a tiny bit of heat and so much flavor to the sauce
- Tomato Paste – a 6oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Tomato Sauce – an 8oz can, any brand works, just choose your favorite
- Water – thins the sauce out a little and helps blend on the ingredients together
- Italian Seasoning – a dried seasoning blend that you can buy at the grocery store that usually includes dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary, dried thyme and dried marjoram
- Sugar – enhances the flavors
- Salt – adds flavor
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