How To Make The Best Garlic Parmesan Chicken Rotini In Three-Cheese Provolone Sauce In Columbus
August 24, 2026
Columbus, OH: I’m sitting in an airport right now, wondering if I just blew up my marriage.
This week my daughter lost a classmate. She’s in middle school, and this is the first time death has ever come this close to her. She was friends with the girl. The whole class was excused for the funeral today.
I couldn’t be there. I begged for the time off and got denied, and we cannot afford for me to lose this job. So I flew out Wednesday night with a plan: my husband, who’s between jobs right now, would take her to the mass and the burial. Just be there. Hold her hand.
Here’s the thing about my husband. He is terrified of anything to do with the dead. Funerals, viewings, cemeteries. He genuinely believes in ghosts. But we talked it through Wednesday and he swore he’d take her.
This morning my phone rang. It was my daughter, sobbing. Daddy wasn’t taking her. When I finally got him on the phone, he told me he couldn’t do it. He was too scared.
My dad left work, picked up my granddaughter and took her to that funeral himself. They’re there right now.
Then my husband called me crying, because apparently…
My Father Tore Him a New One
Called him a coward. Said a grown man who lets his fear come before his own child that isn’t acting like a parent. My husband wants me to make my dad apologize.
I told him my dad was right.
Now he’s calling me every name in the book, and I’m sitting at gate C14 wondering if I married a man or a boy.
Do you think I was wrong? I genuinely want to know.
My father kept her the rest of the day so she wouldn’t see us fighting. And that night, that sweet man cooked his granddaughter her favorite dinner, just the two of them at his kitchen table. Here is the dish he made her:
The Best Garlic Parmesan Chicken Rotini in Three-Cheese Provolone Sauce
Ingredients:
- 12 ounces rotini pasta
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Bald Buck Seasoning: Bold Taste (or Slow Burn for spicy)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4 ounces block cream cheese, softened to room temperature and cubed
- 1 cup provolone, shredded fresh off the block
- 1 cup low-moisture mozzarella, shredded fresh off the block
- 3/4 cup Parmesan, grated fresh off the block
- Chopped fresh parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (plain salt here — the Bald Buck goes on the chicken). Cook the rotini 2 minutes SHY of the package’s al dente time. Before draining, scoop out and reserve 1 cup of the starchy pasta water. Drain and set aside.
- Pat the chicken pieces completely dry, then toss with the Bald Buck Seasoning, garlic powder, and pepper. Remember Bald Buck is your salt, so act accordingly.
- Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the chicken in a single layer and let it sit untouched for 3-4 minutes until deeply golden on one side, then flip and finish, about 3 more minutes. Transfer to a plate. Do not wipe the skillet.
- Drop the heat to medium and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion and cook 3-4 minutes until soft, then the garlic for 1 minute until fragrant.
- Sprinkle in the flour and stir constantly for a full 60-90 seconds until it smells nutty — this cooks out the raw flour taste. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth, scraping up every browned bit stuck to the pan bottom. Whisk in the heavy cream and let it come to a gentle simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly thickened.
- Reduce the heat to LOW and stir in the cream cheese cubes until fully melted and smooth.
- Take the skillet OFF the heat. Add the provolone, mozzarella, and Parmesan one handful at a time, stirring each handful until melted before adding the next. Residual heat melts it silky; direct heat breaks it into grease.
- Return the chicken (and any juices on the plate) to the skillet along with the rotini. Toss over low heat for 1-2 minutes so the pasta finishes cooking right in the sauce, adding splashes of the reserved pasta water until the sauce clings glossy to every spiral. Taste — if it needs more seasoning, hit it with another pinch of Bald Buck.
- Top with parsley and serve hot, straight from the skillet.
Cooking Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 5
Pro Tips:
- Skip the pre-shredded bags for all three cheeses. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in anti-caking starch that keeps it from ever fully melting into the sauce — that’s the number one cause of grainy, clumpy cheese sauce. Five extra minutes with a box grater is the difference between silky and gritty.
- Pull the pasta 2 minutes early and finish it in the sauce with splashes of pasta water. The starch in that water emulsifies the fat and cheese into a sauce that actually grips the rotini instead of pooling at the bottom of the bowl, and the pasta drinks in garlic-cheese flavor as it finishes.
- Bald Buck Seasoning is my best secret ingredient. BBQ Pitmasters use it for their meat but I learned it makes for one hell of a seasoned salt. Try it on the chicken in this dish but more importantly, experiment with it as the salt in your other dishes. It adds this unique flavor that is amazing but nobody will be able to put their finger on what that flavor is.