Swap Red Sauce With Alfredo For The Creamiest Olive Garden Chicken Parmesan

Have you ever visited a restaurant, only to find that the exact thing you want isn't on the menu? In some cases, the chef is able to prepare what you want, and in others, you can make simple ingredient swaps that will satisfy whatever you're craving. Such is the case with Olive Garden, where the "secret menu" is loaded with ingredient combinations the kitchen is happy to prepare. Take chicken parm, for example: a classic dish made from chicken cutlets, red sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan. But if you're not a fan of red sauce, or it's just not what you're looking for that day, try swapping it out for Alfredo sauce. 

The creamy sauce gives the dish the ultimate cheesy kick when paired with all of that mozzarella. And because it's already a common ingredient in other Olive Garden dishes, the kitchen will likely be willing to make the change.

If you go this route, be prepared for cheese overload — in a good way. Alfredo sauce's main ingredients are heavy cream, butter, and parmesan cheese. Pairing it with the mozzarella in Olive Garden's chicken parm is the best thing if you're a true cheese lover.

If you're unsure of which sauce you want for your chicken dish, it could be worth it to ask for both. There might be an additional charge, but if you've ever paired red sauce with Alfredo sauce, you know the acidic red sauce and creamy Alfredo make for an unreal flavor pairing. You can do this two ways; either order the standard chicken parm and ask for a side of Alfredo sauce, or order the dish topped with both sauces. 

And if you're seriously hungry, Alfredo sauce also makes a delicious breadstick dip.

It's no surprise that people might want to swap Olive Garden's red sauce with its Alfredo sauce; the chain's creamy, cheesy sauce is hard to beat. That's because Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce uses heavy cream, an ingredient that has become popular in the United States but isn't traditional to the original Alfredo sauce. 

Alfredo sauce was invented in Italy more than 100 years ago as a blend of butter and cheese, sans cream. However, adding cream to the dish gave it a heavy, sauce-like texture, and thus American-style Alfredo sauce became popular. The cream adds serious richness to the recipe, and when blended with butter and cheese, it creates an immaculate sauce that works on everything from plain pasta to chicken parm. 

If you want to recreate Olive Garden's delicious sauce at home, it takes only those three basic ingredients. But you can also add garlic, sea salt, and parsley for a truly unbeatable sauce.