One night last week, I came up with this dish while going through our refrigerator. I was too lazy to go grocery shopping and there was food in the refrigerator. All I had to do was make sense of it. I found chicken tenders, cilantro, scallions, and a box of penne pasta in the pantry. With some olive oil, a little butter, soy sauce, black pepper, crushed red peppers, and some garlic and it evolved into this recipe. We’re up in the mountains and my husband requested it again. I just kicked it up a few notches by adding a few extra ingredients and took it to a whole new level.
Recipe:
1 box of penne pasta (you can use any pasta)
1 lb of chicken breasts/tenders/skinless boneless thighs
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 an onion sliced or chopped
2 cups of sliced mushrooms (fresh or canned)
2 Tbs of olive oil
2 Tbs of butter
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of crushed red peppers (can adjust to taste)
2 Tbs of soy sauce
1/2 cup of light cream
a splash of a good white wine (optional)
Directions:
1. Before you start prepping the chicken. Start to boil water for your pasta!
2. Slice chicken into small slices (1/2 inch x 1 inch) place in bowl
3. Slice or chop half an onion
4. Mince garlic cloves
5. Add garlic, soy sauce, salt, pepper, crushed red peppers to chicken
6. Put oil in a big pan, medium to high heat
7. Sautee Onions until the onions are soft, then add mushrooms, if you’re using fresh toss them until slightly soft then add your optional splash of wine; canned mushrooms are already soft so there’s no need to wait
8. Add chicken and cook thoroughly then add cream
9. Add cooked pasta into pan and toss until pasta is covered in sauce
10. Garnish with slice scallions and chopped cilantro (optional)
Serves 6 to 8
I want to point out that it’s always a good idea to try your dish before you serve it and that it suits your taste buds. Although I follow recipes, I don’t follow them to a tee. Everyone’s palette is different. The first time I made this dish, I didn’t add the mushrooms, wine, and cream. Boy it sure made a difference, and the cream didn’t make it too heavy. You can omit these ingredients and the dish would still turn out great.
I own a ton of cookbooks, but usually cook from memory or create new dishes on the fly. I had to really pay attention to take a stab at putting this recipe together. Please feel free to test it and give me feedback.
