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Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Chicken breast tenderloins sautéed with sun-dried tomatoes and penne pasta in a creamy mozzarella cheese sauce. If you love pasta, if you love Italian food – you’ll LOVE this recipe!

First, you sautee garlic and sun-dried tomatoes in the olive oil that comes from the jar with sun-dried tomatoes – you do it on high heat so that tomatoes get nicely charred. Then, you remove the tomatoes, and sautee chicken (salted and lightly covered in paprika, for color) on high heat. What you get are nicely charred sun-dried tomatoes and stove-top roasted chicken:

To that, you add half and half and mozzarella cheese, bring the mixture to boil, then simmer and stir to melt the cheese and form a creamy sauce. Make sure to reserve some pasta water as you will DEFINITELY need it to add to the sauce to make it less thick and more creamy:

Final step is to add spices just enough for your taste: basil, crushed red pepper flakes, salt. The final dish is nothing short of AMAZING:

Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 small jar (3-4 oz) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, or use 3-4 oz fat-free sun dried tomatoes

1 lb chicken breast tenders

salt

paprika (just a little bit)

1 cup half and half

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

8 oz penne pasta (for gluten free, use Tinkyada gluten free brown rice pasta)

1 tablespoon basil (if using dry basil), if using fresh basil you can add more

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (at least, add more to taste)

1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water (or more)

salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained oil for sauteing as described below:
2. In a large pan, on high heat, sautee garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) in 2 tablespoons of oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar - see note above) for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant. Remove sun-dried tomatoes from the pan, leaving the oil, and add chicken tenders, salted and lightly covered in paprika (for color) and cook on high heat for 1 minute on each side. Remove from heat.
3. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve some cooked pasta water. Drain and rinse the pasta with cold water (to stop cooking).
4. Slice sun-dried tomatoes into smaller bits and add them back to the skillet with chicken. Add half and half and cheese to the skillet, too, and bring to a gentle boil. Immediately reduce to simmer and cook, constantly stirring, until all cheese melts and creamy sauce forms. If the sauce is too thick - don't worry - you'll be adding some cooked pasta water soon. Add cooked pasta to the skillet with the creamy sauce, and stir to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of basil, and at least 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
5. Add about 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water because the creamy sauce will be too thick (do not add all water at once - you might need less or more of it). This will water down the thickness of the cheese sauce and make it creamier. Immediately, season the pasta with salt and more red pepper flakes, to taste, if needed. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes for flavors to combine.
6. Note: Make sure to salt the dish just enough to bring out of the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.

Source:Julias Album

Posted by Unknown at 3:48 AM

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