Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken
 |
| Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken | Epic Demo |
Sun-dried tomato pesto beautifully. I ate for lunch with fresh noodles frequently. If you remove the chicken from the recipes below, can be used on pesto noodles as the primo course (first), as a spread on crostini (toasted bread), fish, etc. I have added chicken to make the main dish. You can substitute sausage for chicken Italy also for the main course.
These Sun-dried tomato Pasta with chicken are foods that come together in more than a 20-minute audience which became total!
When you scan the ingredients in this recipe, or, quite simply, viewing photos, you know it's going to be a winner. Pasta + chicken in onion sauce parmesan cream with Sun-dried tomatoes = sure-fire hit with everyone!
Pretty hard to go wrong when it comes to pasta in cream sauce (such as Caesar Chicken Pasta). For me, the key is finding the right balance so creamy but not too heavy so rich to have as a midweek meal. It would be easy to make a soft paste using lots and lots of cream. But what I want to do is use the cream mixture with parmesan chicken broth. Chicken stock adds flavor to the sauce and parmesan both thickened and adds savouriness for the sauce.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces ziti or other pasta of choice
- 4 small chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 4 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 Cup heavy cream
- 1 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 3/4 Cup grated parmesan Cheese plus extra for garnish
- 1/2-3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes cut (Note 1)
- 1 cup spinach optional
- 1/4 cup basil leaves sliced
Instructions
- Cook ziti according to with the package directions minus 1 minute. Just before drying, scoop out a cup of pasta cooking water 1/2.
- Meanwhile, sprinkle the chicken on both sides with pepper and salt. Pound 1″ thickness if they are thicker than that.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet using medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4 minutes on each side, then remove to a plate, cover loosely with foil to rest.
- Melt the butter in a skillet using medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion, Cook for 1 minute.
- Add the mushrooms and cook until golden--about 2 minutes.
- Add the broth, cream, parmesan, and Sun-dried tomatoes. Stir and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Season sauce to taste use more salt and pepper.
- Add the water and cook the pasta, spinach. Toss in 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens Starch pasta-cooking water will emulsify with the fat in the sauce to thicken it.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta to a serving plate. Top with the chicken and then spoon over the remaining sauce in the skillet. Garnish with fresh basil and parmesan. Serve!
Recipe note
- Note 1: Sun-dried tomatoes in oil is better, but the vacuum packed Sun-dried tomatoes will work fine as well as sauces for pasta for this recipe are cheaper than most, creating sufficient chicken sauce needs as well. If you want more sauce, add more cream and parmesan-2 tsp parmesan for every extra Cup of cream, 1/4 and don't forget to season to taste!
That said though, these recipes have more sauce than most cream chicken recipe around because it was a prescription two-in-one. That is, there was enough sauce to serve with the chicken and toss through pasta.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention! Another little trick to thicken the sauce without adding yet another cream is to toss the pasta sauce with a splash of the pasta cooking water. Starch in water mixed with oil in the sauce and thickened it. This is called mix and this is a step in all the real Italy pasta recipe. Gone are the days of dumping of plain pasta in a bowl and spooning sauce over resulting in watery sauce in the bottom of the bowl. No, you want the sauce to stick to the pasta, and the way to do this is to throw the pasta sauce on the stove. That way each piece of pasta sauce has stuck to it, rather than coasting goes to the bottom of the bowl. :-)
Enjoy!