Check out the ingredients they used. They were simple and basic, as we're the instructions. Chicken, asparagus, pasta, parm cheese. I took that and put my (garlicky) twist on it.
Here's what I did....
I used 6-8 (can't remember exactly) boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders. I usually buy these in bulk, package them myself and throw them in the freezer so I can pull them out whenever we feel like chicken. I thawed a bag of them and cut them up into cube (ish) sized pieces.
I should mention that before I did this, I did my prep work for the garlic, cut my lemon and snapped the ends off my asparagus. I hate how short the stalks get when you snap them but we love asparagus over here so I can't complain too much.
After cutting everything up, I melted about 1/2 a tbsp of butter and probably about 1/2 a tbsp of olive oil in a pan. I put a little salt and pepper on the chicken to season it and once everything was melty and mixed, I threw in the chicken to start browning. I used to throw the garlic in first (which you could) but then I read somewhere that if you throw the garlic in midway through, you get a stronger garlic flavor. This was something that sounded too good to pass up and now, I'm hooked. Stronger flavor and doesn't burn as easily! But, you can always do it earlier if you like a little less garlic flavor. Or just use less garlic! I ended up using 4 fairly good sized cloves of garlic and didn't chop them up super fine. Okay, enough about garlic.
Once everything started to brown, I tossed the garlic in and gave it a stir. Then, I took the juice of 1/2 a lemon and coated everything in the pan. I used my hand juicer to make sure I had as much as possible from the lemon.
While all of this was going, I started my pasta water, salted and cooked the pasta. The original recipe says to steam the asparagus but in the sense of saving a dish, I threw it in right with the pasta. I pulled the asparagus out right before I drained the pasta. I cut it into pieces that were a similar size to my pasta (we had penne w/ it, but you could pretty much use anything).
The original recipe also called for fresh Parmesan cheese. At the risk of being a little frugal, I opted for a blend of cheeses (parm and mozzarella) that happened to be on sale. I just couldn't see paying $4 when I could pay $2.50....
I mixed the pasta, chicken, asparagus and a hand full of the cheese all together and threw it in a 9x12 baking dish. I put it under the broiler on high and watched it until the cheese started to bubble and brown a little. The end result looked like this:
The verdict? "The chicken is bomb, and the whole thing is really light. Can I have more?" {thank you, Mr. Picky!!}.
We will CERTAINLY be having this again soon! I think it's a great meal because it's easy, pretty cheap (especially if you get some good deals), and not overdone with sauce or the same chicken dish you always have. Chicken can be a little boring but trying something new can liven it up!
What's your go-to pasta dish?
Happy Fooding!
Here's what I did....
I used 6-8 (can't remember exactly) boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders. I usually buy these in bulk, package them myself and throw them in the freezer so I can pull them out whenever we feel like chicken. I thawed a bag of them and cut them up into cube (ish) sized pieces.
I should mention that before I did this, I did my prep work for the garlic, cut my lemon and snapped the ends off my asparagus. I hate how short the stalks get when you snap them but we love asparagus over here so I can't complain too much.After cutting everything up, I melted about 1/2 a tbsp of butter and probably about 1/2 a tbsp of olive oil in a pan. I put a little salt and pepper on the chicken to season it and once everything was melty and mixed, I threw in the chicken to start browning. I used to throw the garlic in first (which you could) but then I read somewhere that if you throw the garlic in midway through, you get a stronger garlic flavor. This was something that sounded too good to pass up and now, I'm hooked. Stronger flavor and doesn't burn as easily! But, you can always do it earlier if you like a little less garlic flavor. Or just use less garlic! I ended up using 4 fairly good sized cloves of garlic and didn't chop them up super fine. Okay, enough about garlic.
Once everything started to brown, I tossed the garlic in and gave it a stir. Then, I took the juice of 1/2 a lemon and coated everything in the pan. I used my hand juicer to make sure I had as much as possible from the lemon.
While all of this was going, I started my pasta water, salted and cooked the pasta. The original recipe says to steam the asparagus but in the sense of saving a dish, I threw it in right with the pasta. I pulled the asparagus out right before I drained the pasta. I cut it into pieces that were a similar size to my pasta (we had penne w/ it, but you could pretty much use anything).
The original recipe also called for fresh Parmesan cheese. At the risk of being a little frugal, I opted for a blend of cheeses (parm and mozzarella) that happened to be on sale. I just couldn't see paying $4 when I could pay $2.50....
I mixed the pasta, chicken, asparagus and a hand full of the cheese all together and threw it in a 9x12 baking dish. I put it under the broiler on high and watched it until the cheese started to bubble and brown a little. The end result looked like this:The verdict? "The chicken is bomb, and the whole thing is really light. Can I have more?" {thank you, Mr. Picky!!}.
We will CERTAINLY be having this again soon! I think it's a great meal because it's easy, pretty cheap (especially if you get some good deals), and not overdone with sauce or the same chicken dish you always have. Chicken can be a little boring but trying something new can liven it up!
What's your go-to pasta dish?
Happy Fooding!
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