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Recipe needed for pasta pesto and chicken

4 replies

Timepasses · 14/05/2014 19:00

Our local restaurant do a lovely dish with these ingredients but as I am a rubbish cook I need to know where to start. Thanks

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riverboat1 · 14/05/2014 20:13

In Jamie's 15 minute cookbook there is a nice easy recipe for this type of dish:

  1. Bash some chicken breasts with a rolling pin to make them thinner. Fry in oil until cooked (about 5 mins each side) with a few unpeeled garlic cloves, fresh red chillies and plenty of halved cherry tomatoes also in the pan.
  1. Meanwhile, add some green beans to salted boiling water, and after 5m add pasta and cook to packet instructions. At end of cooking time add some spinach to blanche for a minute or so.
  1. Drain everything from the pasta pan, reserving a cup of the water. Put everything back in pan with either homemade or readymade pesto, and add a bit of the cooking water to loosen it up. Heat through.
  1. Serve up the pasta, beans, spinach and pesto. Put the chicken breasts, tomatoes and chillis on top. Grate some parmesan and freshly chopped basil leaves over the top.
TwigletFiend · 15/05/2014 12:07

Also nice: Put pasta on to cook in boiling, salted water. Use wholewheat pasta for healthier meal and fuller flavour.

Season and cook chicken in a pan with a little olive oil (I usually use bone-in thighs for this instead of breast - cheaper and much tastier!) Slash meat to quicken cooking time. If leaving skin on your chicken, whatever cut you use, cook skin side down first to ensure crispy skin.

When golden all over and cooked through, remove chicken from pan. Test whether cooked by inserting a knife into thickest part of meat and then pressing gently on the side of the slit - juices should run clear, not bloody.

Turn down heat and soften some mushrooms in the same pan, add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic after a couple of minutes to sweat off too. Drain pasta, reserving a little of the water.

Once mushrooms and garlic soft, mix half a jar of green pesto and a pot of half-fat crème fraiche into the pan. Stir to mix and allow to warm through. Once warm, add in pasta and stir to coat - should be just enough sauce to coat the pasta without excess.

Once pasta stirred in, either mix in the chicken and then serve or serve the pasta with the placed on top.

Nice with a bit of crusty garlic bread or a side salad if you're feeling healthy!

TwigletFiend · 15/05/2014 12:09

Forgot to say, if sauce is too thick, use a little of the pasta cooking water to loosen it up Smile

Timepasses · 16/05/2014 05:55

All sounds great. Can't wait to try these. Thanks

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