Chicken, Spinach, Tomato Pasta in Garlic Cream Sauce
If you’re like us, you can eat pasta any time of the day. But sometimes we get stuck and it feels like we’re using the same ingredients over and over again. This recipe is the perfect dish to wake up those tastebuds again. Enjoy this chicken, spinach, and tomato pasta smothered in a creamy garlic sauce.
This dish is packed with flavourful ingredients and herbs. Firstly, we’ll start by lightly cooking the chicken with paprika and Italian seasoning. By using the Italian seasoning, flavours like basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and garlic will start filling the air. This, however, is definitely not enough garlic! We will be adding 5 cloves so that the garlic sauce is pungently delicious.
Once the spinach, tomatoes, red pepper and garlic is fried, its time to add the meat back to the pan. And chicken is not the only meat that will be added to this recipe. We will be adding bacon for that extra meaty texture and flavour. The bacon brings a delicious salty and smokiness to the flavours of the pasta.
Pasta Tip
We suggest using pasta that has a shell shape (like Conchiglie) or large enough surface so that the garlic sauce can really mix in with the dish and not just slide off the pasta.
Chicken, Spinach, Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Pasta Sauce
Spruce up your pasta dishes with this rich and tasty chicken, spinach and tomato pasta drenched in a creamy garlic sauce.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean
Keyword Chicken, Cream, Garlic, Spinach, Tomato
Prep Time 25 minutesminutes
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
Total Time 50 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Author Melissa Jacobs
Ingredients
2tbspolive oil
500gchickenchicken breasts sliced thinly
1tsppaprika
1tspItalian seasoning
5tomatoesmedium, chopped in large cubes
1cupbaby spinach washed
5cloves ofgarlic cloves minced
½red pepper depicted and sliced
250gbacon stripssliced and braised
300gfull cream milk
300gcream
250ggrams hard cheese shredded
1packetpasta of your choice
250gParmesan cheese shredded for serving
Instructions
In a large skillet, on high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil until hot. Add chicken and cook on one side on high heat for 1 minute. While it cooks, sprinkle the uncooked sides of the chicken with paprika and Italian seasoning. Flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for 1 minute on high heat. Reduce heat to medium, flip chicken over again and cook, covered, for several minutes until no longer pink in the centre. Remove chicken from the pan and keep chicken warm.
To the same pan (but without chicken), add chopped tomatoes, spinach, garlic, red pepper, 1/3 of the chicken and half the bacon (already cooked and drained). Mix everything.
Add milk and cream, when boiling, add shredded hard cheese, immediately re-duce to simmer and stir, while simmering, until the cheese melts and makes the sauce creamy, only about 1 minute (at most 2 minutes). Then, immediately remove from heat. Season with more crushed red pepper and salt, if needed.
In the meantime bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta and cook it according to instructions. Drain the pasta, rinse with cold water and drain again.
Add pasta to the skillet with the sauce. Add the remaining half of the bacon. Season with more salt if necessary. Slice the remaining 2/3 of chicken into thinner strips if needed. Top the pasta with chicken strips and shredded Parmesan cheese.
Melissa Jacobs is a Catering Chef Specialist that learned to cook growing up in a large family and perfected her skills to make food for a large family of her own, weddings and all kinds of small to large events. Melissa Jacobs Muck Rack Profile, Melissa Jacobs on Flipboard