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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lemon Pasta with Chicken

First off....Thank you to Chris for making my new breast cancer widget you see to the right.  I wanted to show my support for cancer research, so I looked all over the place for a widget that would take you to either The National Breast Cancer Foundation or the Susan G. Komen for the Cure websites. Surprisingly, I came up empty handed.  Chris knew how important it was to me (my Aunt Pam was diagnosed with breast cancer recently) so he came up with a widget I could at least display here on the site.  This widget won't take you to any sites, but it's at least a reminder that the fight is still on going.  Too many people are affected by breast cancer each year.  My one hope is that they find a cure...to all cancers...and in my lifetime.  Thank you baby, I love the widget!!

Now on to the food.............I'm not a huge fan of the Neely's show on the Food Network (they are a bit too lovey-dovey for my taste), but their recipes... well, try this one and tell me what you think :)  Seriously, this is good.  I've made this a ton of times since I came across it.  Chris loves it..I love it...its probably the second favorite pasta dish in our house (Bacon & Tomato pasta being #1).  This is light, fresh, and very easy.

By the way, this works with tuna fish too.  I've wanted to make this dish before and realized I didn't have chicken thawed out, so I just substituted a can of tuna and it was amazingly good!  If you used tuna packed in oil you could cut the amount of oil by at least 1 tablespoon.  You don't even need to heat the tuna, just toss it with the pasta, it will warm up quickly.

 

Lemon Pasta with Chicken
Adapted from The Neelys 
Ingredients:
1 pound dried penne or ziti
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:
Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium high and add chicken. Cook until golden and completely cooked. Remove to a plate.

Add olive oil to the same skillet.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the cooked pasta and turn heat off. Mix all together. Remove pasta to a large bowl. Add chicken to the warm pasta and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in chopped parsley. Add the juice of 2 lemons and mix. Before serving top with Parmesan.  Enjoy!

 

2 comments:

Stephen C said...

I have the same mixed feelings about the Neely's, but do watch them from time to time. We find Rachel Ray (while irritating in many ways) to be quite inventive with the recipes she comes up with.

Btw, have you ever tried Barilla whole grain pastas? We aren't crazy about the all-whole wheat ones, but they make one that's something like 60/40 whole to regular. It's very good and at least has something additional nutritional benefits.

Peter's pizza recipe may seem a bit anal-retentive, but the precision of the timing really pays off.

Nice job, Chris, getting the widget for Jen's site.

The chicken recipe above looks very gentle and pleasing.

Debbie said...

That is my kind of dish and it looks delicious. My husband watches the Neelys and I tune in once in a while. I have made a few of their recipes and find they are hit or miss. Some good and some not so good. I made a sock it to me cake from them that was great! I also made a brownie recipe last week (my husband wanted me to try it, against my judgement) and it was a disaster!!!! I do have quite of few of those!!!!!