Thursday, September 27, 2007

Creamy Herb-Chive Chicken & Pasta

9.)  serve over pasta with steamed veggies, garnish with capers

This is one of my favorite dishes to make for myself and to serve for company. It cooks quickly on the stovetop, or you can cook the sauce and then pour it over fresh raw chicken in a casserole dish and bake it, covered, in the oven for a longer time, if you'd rather just put something on and get out of the kitchen for a while.

1.)  main course ingredients

INGREDIENTS (for 4 servings):

1 pound chicken breast tenderloins
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, lite butter, or Smart Balance
1/2 tub Philly Light cream cheese with chives
1 packet Italian dressing mix (like Good Seasons)
1 can low sodium cream of mushroom (or golden mushroom) soup
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1/2 box whole-wheat angel-hair pasta (Hodgson Mills makes some)*
*NOTE--if you'd rather use refined ("regular") pasta, use a whole box, as WW is more filling.

OPTIONAL, but very good additions: capers, marinated artichoke hearts, fresh asparagus

In a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat, melt butter. As soon as it's melted, very quickly add the Italian dressing mix. Since the dressing mix is salty, you might want to only add half at this time, taste-testing along the way. You can always add more later. Stir until well-blended, working quickly.
2.)  melt butter, stir in Italian dressing mix

Get the chicken breast tenders on to cook, searing both sides well, but as quickly as you can. They'll have plenty of time to cook through later--right now you just want to sear the outside.
3.)  quickly add chicken tenders

4.)   sear chicken on both sides, high heat

Once the chicken pieces are seared, add the 1/2 cup white cooking wine.
5.)  add half cup white wine

Immediately add the can of cream of mushroom soup, and the 1/2 tub of cream cheese.
6.)  quickly add condensed soup and half tub of cream cheese, stir until melted and blended

Stir to blend all ingredients until well melted and blended, then reduce heat and set chicken and sauce to simmer.
7.)  reduce heat and simmer chicken mixture until chicken is cooked through

Meanwhile, be steaming veggies or making a salad to go along with your dinner, and setting a pot of water on the stove to boil for your pasta. Just about the time your side dish is ready, it should be time to put the 1/2 box of whole-wheat pasta on to cook. For my family, I have to cook whole-grain pastas well past the "al dente" stage, or my husband won't eat it, because he's spoiled to refined pasta! If you ARE using "regular" pasta instead of whole-grain, go ahead and use a whole box, because the whole-grain variety is much more filling.
8.)  meanwhile, add WW angel hair pasta to boiling water

Plate pasta, place chicken pieces on top, and pour sauce over all. Garnish with capers if your husband is weird and doesn't like them, preventing you from having cooked them in with the sauce. Serve with steamed vegetables or salad or sauteed asparagus.
9.)  serve over pasta with steamed veggies, garnish with capers

If I were serving this for company, I'd use the oven-bake method, and chicken breast halves instead of tenders. I'd probably slice each individual breast in diagonal pieces, and fan the pieces slightly over each plate of pasta, then pouring the sauce from end to end over the middle.

5 comments:

Mrs Marcos said...

I make pretty much the same recipe (except plain cream cheese and 2 cans of soup instead of 1). We put it over mashed potatoes instead of pasta...mmmmm!

ninjapoodles said...

Sounds good!

Anonymous said...

Belinda - I actually made this recipe this weekend as my parents were in town and I needed to prove I can, too, cook - and it turned out GREAT! Thank you so much for sharing!

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