Chicken Pasta Dish

As you've noticed, I've slowed the frequency of my blog posts, for multiple reasons. First is that I've gotten good at making my meals for two people, which means I have enough leftovers for the next night...and that means less cooking. Also, I'e started repeating recipes and those don't need to be posted again. The reasons continues, but by now you want to see some food!

Last week before I left for work, I had moved some chicken from the freezer and into the fridge to thaw out so that by the time I returned home that evening, my chicken would be ready to go...and that almost worked! The chicken was close to being thawed throughout, so I just soaked it (in the package) in cold water and finished 'er off.

Oh yeah, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First thing I did after thawed the chicken was to boil the water for my pasta...always takes the longer than you think so I try to do it first.

While the water boiled, I started cutting up the chicken into smaller, bite-size pieces. I've cooked chicken both on the stove and in the oven, and for whatever receive, I decided the stove top was the answer for tonight.

I coated the pan in pam (hah!) and tossed the chicken in. I added some black pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic salt to season the chicken just a bit. This will only take about 6-8 minutes to cook, but the time here is just an estimate. Flip the chicken constantly, making sure it is cooking throughout. You need to make sure to check the toughness of the chicken and make sure it's moist. If you only were to listen to my time guidelines, there's a decent chance you'll end up with dry chicken...and you probably don't want that.

I poured in the pasta (about half a box's worth) at just about the same time as I started the chicken. When the pasta was cooked, I strained it and left it in the strainer while I added the pesto. Here's the recipe I followed:
-1/4 cup of butter
-3 tablespoons minced garlic
-1/4 cup pesto

After following this recipe, I'd recommend using less butter and more pesto. I found the flavor to not be as pesto-y as I wanted, so added more pesto would be my suggestion...

By now, you've noticed that there's a salad in this meal too...but I didn't make it! Luckily, I had some assistance from my friend Andrea to whip up the salad. She enjoyed my cooking and lives to see another day! (Ok, my cooking is not nearly close to being that bad, promise!)

Bon Appetit!