Hello ,
if you're anything like me all of this beautiful summer sunshine probably makes you want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. And that is why all month long. I am sharing 20 minute dinner ideas that are fresh and delicious, but come together in an absolute snap. And today it is all about this amazing creamy garlic chicken pasta dish that is shockingly light and fresh, considering how absolutely divine it tastes.
Now for this recipe I am getting started with a big pot of boiling water on the stove. And to that boiling water I am going to be adding
some pasta shells.
Now,I'm using shells in this recipe really because that's what I had on hand in my pantry. But of course you can use any kind of pasta you want in this dish. It's really really versatile. Next, I am going to turn my attention to a nice big skillet I've got heating up over medium high heat, and to that I'm going to add a nice slug of oil. As soon as that oil is nice and hot, I'm going to go ahead and add my chicken to the skillet.
Now you could definitely use some ground turkey in this recipe or some ground pork would be really really good. Or you could leave the meat out entirely. I wouldn't recommend doing this recipe with ground beef because the BC flavor it might be a bit strong. But the chicken works really really well here at this point. I'm just going to seize the my chicken liberally with a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper. And then I just want to let it cook away breaking it up with the side of my spoon until it starts to get nice and browned. Okay, so we've got some nice routing happening here which is a great sign. That means it is time to start building in some more flavor. And to do that I'm going to get started by adding some minced garlic to this. I've got some Italian seasoning headed in here. And I'm also going to be adding some red pepper flakes.
The red pepper flakes are optional here. So if you don't like the heat, you can definitely leave them out. I of course always love the heat so you know I am going for it. And I want to let this cook up with that seasoning and that garlic for another say 30 seconds or so it's always nice to give your spices and seasonings a bit of heat because it really helps to bring out their awesome flavor.
Okay, so now it's time to start adding some liquid to our pan. Now I am going to be starting with a nice glass of white wine here. If you do not cook with wine or you do not have one on hand, you can definitely skip the wine and just use a little more chicken broth in this recipe. But just adding a splash of wine definitely definitely adds some incredible flavor that I think you really really miss in this recipe.
So if you've got the wine, I definitely recommend you use it. We're just going to let that wine sort of cook away until it evaporates completely. And you can see because our pan was nice and hot, doesn't take very long, maybe two minutes or so. Once our wine is fully evaporated, our next step is going to be adding some chicken broth to this. So we want to add a good amount of liquid here to make sure that everything stays really moist when we start adding our pasta. Chicken broth is a great way to do that.
If you wanted to make this a little creamier. You could add half chicken broth half milk in this recipe that is totally an option. I'm trying to keep this a bit on the lighter side a bit more summery.
So the chicken broth works really really well. Now at this point our pasta should be fully cooked.
So what I'm going to do is take a nice big slotted spoon and just use it to transfer my pasta straight into my skillet.
No typically you would drain your pasta in a colander in the sink. But what I want to do is to have some of that pasta water accompany the pasta because it's nice and starchy. It's going to help our sauce get a bit thicker and creamier and more delicious. And guys at this point we are ready to add our finishing ingredients.
First step I have got a nice heaping helping of a freshly grated Parmesan cheese. can't stress this enough freshly grated parmesan is the only way to go in a recipe like this.
I'm just going to stir that parmesan in until it's completely melted and it essentially is going to become part of my sauce.
Now at this point, you could go ahead and add some greens to this if you wanted to some spinach or some kale would be really great. Even some steamed asparagus or some steamed broccoli would be great additions. But I'm keeping things really really simple because I am all about simple in the summer and I'm just going to hit this with some freshly chopped parsley.
give that a quick stir and oh my gosh guys,we are ready for surfing. How fresh and yummy does that look. And honestly guys, it's only taken about 15 minutes from start to finish. What is not to like about that. The only thing better than how quickly this dish comes together is how absolutely amazing it tastes.
Such a winner.
I hope you will give it a try for yourselves. And if you do, be sure to tweet me Instagram or Facebook me a photo because you guys know how much I love seeing your kitchen creations. Remember, the recipe is linked in the description box below and available on our amazing meal planning site healthy meal plans.com.
If you haven't checked out the site yet, I really hope you will. It allows you to browse through more than 1000 recipes.
Drag and drop them into your weekly meal plan and then automatically generates your shopping list for the week with just the click of a button. Super simple to use an absolutely free. I hope you guys will give it a try. And finally, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe because there is lots more deliciousness where this came from.
