Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken

Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken
For a detailed reason of why my dishes are appearing on styrofoam plates, click here.
  • 1 lb. Mueller’s Whole Wheat Rotini pasta, cooked 
  • 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces  
  • 1 package chicken broth powder 
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1 lb frozen green beans 
  • 1 16oz. package Philadelphia Cookin Crème “Tomato & Basil” 

 

  1. Begin by essentially steaming your chicken in a skillet with the broth. This keeps the fat content down considerably, and the broth helps insure you don’t wind up with bland chicken. 
  2. Once the chicken is mostly all cooked (all the pieces have turned that white/tan color), add the bag of green beans on top. Cover for 5-10 minutes, while you boil the water for the pasta.
  3. Cook the pasta in salted water.  I’ve found that the only way to palate whole wheat pasta is to cook it beyond al dente.
  4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly, and then return to the pan you cooked it in.  
  5. Add dollops of the Cooking Crème throughout the pasta, so that it melts with the heat of the pasta.  Once you’ve added ¾ of the package, add the now cooked chicken and green beans to the pasta pan.
  6. Add the rest of the Cookin Crème and toss gently to cover everything.
  7. Plate it and finish it off with a nice health shaving of parmesan or mozzarella.

    Dinner’s ready!  
Easy replacements would be delicious. I’ve used spinach, broccoli and a host of other vegetables. I’ve also used more than 1 at a time.  There’s more than enough Cookin Crème to cover everything.  We’ve been moving away from using a lot of meat, but I think this would also work with ground turkey, too – or really ANY meat, including maybe some pork or hamburger.  It would also work with NO meat. It’s a very versatile recipe!  Enjoy!  

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