Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 4: Creamy Chicken Penne

Even the name of this meal sounds tasty. When I attempt to make pasta, it usually includes simply buying a pasta sauce, cooking the pasta up and stirring it in. Not nearly as fun and only half as delicious as making it yourself! So today, I say goodbye to lazy pasta and hello to creamy pasta.
I found the base of my recipe on Rachael Ray's website, bless her heart and her wholesome meals.
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/Creamy-Chicken-Penne
Here's what you need: 
Serves 4
-2 cups penne pasta 
- 1/2 kg boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped onions
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 170g snow peas
- 1/2 small capsicum. chopped
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 2 Tbsp. butter 
- 1 Tbsp. flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 115g Cream Cheese
- 1/2 cup Grated Cheese 

Here's how to do it: 
1. Cook pasta as directed on packet. While the pasta is boiling, cook chicken and onions in hot oil in large pan for 6-8 min or until chicken is done, stirring frequently. Add snow peas, capsicum and garlic; cook and stir 1 min. Remove from heat; cover to keep warm. 2. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Stir in flour until well blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to boil; cook on medium heat 2 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cream cheese, grated cheese, salt and black pepper; cook 1-2 min. or until cream cheese is completely melted and sauce is well blended, stirring constantly. 3. Drain pasta; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture and sauce; toss to coat. Top with parsley. 

Magic! There you have it, quick, delicious and super creamy chicken penne! It would have been nice to add some pine nuts and spinach too-might try that next time. You can really add what ever you want to it, it's mainly the creamy sauce that makes it special. Enjoy!



1 comment:

AndrewWrites said...

I've never really understood the phrase 'or until chicken is done'.

I guess it's the 'or' part that I object to. Are they implying that if we don't want to worry about cooking the chick all the way through that that's ok? Because in my experience, it is NOT!

Perhaps it should say... "Cook the chicken for six to eight minutes... but if it's not done by then, cook it some more. Unless you want to die of food poisoning."