It’s a new year and I’m back in the kitchen cooking up easy, yet tasty gluten-free meals! This one comes courtesy of REAL SIMPLE (shout out to my mother-in-law for getting me a 1 year subscription for Christmas!) I am absolutely loving this dish — not only is it good for you (veggies!) but the garlic and chicken add some awesome flavor, you’ll think you’re at an Italian restaurant!
Ingredients:
Shredded rotisserie chicken
3 cups dry pasta, use a short pasta like penne or rotini (Cooking Hint: 1 cup dry pasta = 4 oz. cooked pasta)
1 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp butter
3-4 cloves garlic (you can never have too much garlic!)
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups shredded rotiserrie chicken (about a 2 lb bird will suffice here)
6 cups baby spinach
Salt and pepper, to taste
Grated parmesan cheese, for serving
Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package, adding peas during last minute.
2. Drain pasta and peas into a calander and let sit.
3. Using the same pot as before, melt butter and add garlic. Cook until gragrant (about 30 seconds, making sure it doesn’t burn!)
4. Add cream, chicken, spinach, salt and pepper until chicken is warmed through and spinach is wilted (about 2-3 min). NOTE: I am not a big spinach person so I only used 3 cups for this dish however I did not account for how much the spinach cooks down. In retrospect, I wished I had used all 6 cups and you will too!
5. Add pasta and peas. Toss and combine.
6. Serve with parmesan cheese and enjoy!
This dish got an Erik Rating of 4! Not bad for my first cooking venture of 2013…
A big plus is that this dish yeilds a healthy 4 servings, making it great for leftovers the next day (You cooked a great meal yesterday, take the night off today!) I plan to use chicken more this year and I’ve already got a handful of great recipes on deck for you. Look for Mexican Tortilla Casserole and Chinese Lemon Chicken next week!
Thanks for reading,
This looks insane!!! I am definitely going to try this.
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