Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken and Veggies
So tonight was a typical night of a working mother, I was at my desk at work and I was STARVING; becoming quite hangry to be honest.
I pulled up a website of a chain Italian restaurant; even started to prepare an online order. When I looked at the menu more, I thought of all the hidden calories in what I ordered. I also realized that my family and I would be way happier with something I made because it would be not only delicious but much more healthful.
So what did I have in my pantry? If you caught our post from the other night on Veggie French Bread Pizza, you’ll see some of the same ingredients. I’m kind of glad because you will be able to see some other variations of very similar ingredients.
Here are the ingredients for our slightly organic meal
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Ingredients:
Protein:
- Two organic chicken breasts (these guys I had bought last week when I made the fajitas and froze the ones I knew I wasn’t going to use).
Veggies
- 1/2 Organic green zucchini from grandpas garden it was pretty large so you could get away with one whole small green zucchini
- 1/2 Red onion
- 1/3 Cup frozen sweet peas
- 3 Large button mushrooms sliced
- 1/2 Purple bell pepper – you can substitute with a red, yellow or orange bell pepper. Though I love them I think green would be a little bitter for this dish. Also, notice the purple pepper we used in the fajitas and french bread pizzas. I bout two at the store and was able to use them for three meals.
- 2 lemon wedges
- 1 Handful of organic baby heirloom tomatoes
Pasta
- 1/2 lb rigatoni pasta
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
PASTA Sauce
- 1/3 Cups parmesan cheese
- 1/2 Organic heavy cream
- 3 tbs organic butter
- 1 Heaping tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 Heaping tablespoon organic sun dried tomato pesto with basil
- 1 Heaping tablespoon homemade organic pesto
- 1/3 Cups chardonnay
- Organic sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
First I chopped the veggies.
While I was chopping the veggies, I had the chicken breasts cooking in a non-stick pan with about a tsp of olive oil and about three tablespoons of water. I wanted to get a good brown on the chicken. I also had the pasta cooking in a pot of boiling water with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and a large pinch of sea salt.
Brown the Chicken
On the chicken, I spread about a half tsp of minced garlic on each breast also topped with salt and pepper. I had a lid on the chicken because it was frozen.
After the chicken was almost completely defrosted, I sliced it and put it back into the pan to continue cooking.
Once the chicken was browned, I removed it from the pan and set it aside.
I would normally recommend that you add a little more olive oil and jump into sautéing your veggies. This is for a number of reasons, cut down on dishes, and clean up and also get all those awesome flavors together with the chicken and veggies. etc. I got such a nice brown on the chicken I really wanted to deglaze the pan with the chicken drippings so that’s what I did.
The Pasta Sauce
I took the 1/3 C white wine and deglazed the pan with drippings. I then added a tbs of butter to the wine this is all on med-high heat by the way.
I then added my half cup of cream and tsp of minced garlic and stirred it all around. When I saw the edges of the pan start to bubble up I added 1/3 c parmesan cheese.
Once I combined the cheese and stirred it all together I added a heaping tablespoon of my homemade organic pesto, and a heaping tablespoon of organic sun-dried tomato pesto with basil.
Because I decided to make the sauce ahead of cooking the veggies, I had to start a new pan, so yes we have a sauce pan, a pasta pan, and now a veggie pan. If you don’t want to make the sauce first it’s totally fine, I was just being greedy to get those awesome chicken drippings.
Overall I’d say I cooked the veggies for about 4-5 minutes, didn’t want to over do it and wanted them to be somewhat al dente mostly just cooking the liquid off of them. Alternatively, because it’s still end of summer you could opt to not cook any of the veggies at all; except the frozen peas 🙂
Also to note I added the tomatoes last minute just to blister them and make them soft. I would have had more but my little absolutely loves any type of tomatoes and ate almost all of them before I could get them in my dish.
Once the pasta was done I drained it in a colander and then poured it in the pan of sauce. I tossed it and then poured in the chicken and veggies and then tossed it again which provided a generous coating of the sauce on the chicken, veggies and pasta.
Finally, I thought it would be nice to serve family style so I poured it into a large bowl and topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
My daughter and man gobbled it up so I’d say tonight’s meal was a huge hit! Another successful slightly organic meal for the Greene family. I hope you enjoy it too!
