I’m finally sharing my go-to, absolute favorite easy dinner. I’ve been making this dish for years in some form or another. I keep tweaking the recipe, but it’s always delicious.
Most of the time I serve it over pasta because my kids can EAT. But I usually skip the pasta and serve it with roasted vegetables or spaghetti squash.
What I love about this recipe is that it comes together in about 30 minutes, so even on those crazy nights you can get dinner on the table quickly. Also, you can use raw chicken, leftover chicken, or shredded rotisserie chicken, or even canned chicken in this recipe.
I do not eat a lot of pasta so I’ve included some healthier substitutions. You can serve this over rice, cauliflower rice, spaghetti squash, or add more cooked spinach.
Chicken and Spinach Skillet Pasta
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 box pasta bowtie or spaghetti
- 2 chicken breast- sliced very thin
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic we love garlic- adjust to your liking
- 1 teaspoon salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons Emeril's Original Essence or use a combination of red pepper flakes, paprika, and salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons chicken bullion base
- dash of fresh ground pepper pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup red onion diced
- 1 bag raw spinach
- 1 cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
- 3/4 heavy cream
- 3/4 cup shredded Asiago or Romano cheese
Instructions
- Boil the noodles.
- While the noodles are boiling melt butter in a large saucepan or wok over a medium heat.
- When the butter has melted add the thinly sliced chicken.
- Saute' the chicken in the melted butter. Turning it over so it is fully cooked.
- While chicken is cooking add the minced garlic.
- Add the chicken bullion.
- Add the spinach, Emeril's, salt, pepper, sun dried tomatoes and red onions.
- Cook for another 2-4 minutes. (The spinach will shrivel up during the cooking process. This is okay because then your kids might not know they are eating spinach.)
- Turn the heat to low.
- Add cream and allow sauce to come to a boil again.
- Boil for one minute then add the cooked noodles. Remove from heat and mix in the shredded cheese.
If you are not serving this over pasta you can add the shredded cheese at the end. I just sprinkle it on the top of the chicken and serve it over more cooked spinach.
If you want to lower the fat of this recipe you can substitute low fat cream cheese or sour cream for some or all of the heavy cream. I actually use the Neufchatel cream cheese most of the time. I think it tastes better anyway.
If you are using cream cheese you’ll want to let it soften a bit before using. Add it to the recipe when you would add the heavy cream, but stir constantly to melt it.
If you can’t find the chicken bullion (they sell it at Costco and Amazon) you can use chicken stock, but you’ll want to add it early in the process to allow the liquid to cook down a bit. You can also skip it, but it does add flavor.
Leave a Reply