Chicken Pesto Pasta With Mushrooms And Sun Dried Tomatoes Recipe

Chicken pesto pasta with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes is a delicious, restaurant-quality Italian recipe that you can easily put together in your own home kitchen! Join Eric from Simply Elegant Home Cooking as he demonstrates the step by step method for this dish. It is very important to use the highest quality ingredients, and that starts with the pesto. In the last episode of Simply Elegant Home Cooking, Eric prepared a basil and pistachio pesto and that is what was used today in the pasta. While you don’t necessarily have to use this exact recipe, it is recommended that you make your own homemade pesto as the ingredients will be fresher but a store bought pesto will work fine too.

The link to Eric’s pistachio pesto recipe:
https://youtu.be/j7ZmV38u7vk

Ingredients:
-1/3 cup pesto
-4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
-1 tablespoon neutral cooking oil
-2 tablespoons butter
-5 ounces sliced baby bella mushrooms
-12 oil packed sun dried tomatoes, drained and sliced
-1/2 cup Italian white wine
-1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
-1/2 lemon
-1/2 pound fusilli or other pasta
-Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
-Prepare the homemade pesto using the recipe linked above or substitute your favorite pesto recipe.
-Remove chicken thighs from fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking. Rinse and pat the chicken dry using paper towels and cut into bite-sized pieces. Add a small amount of cooking oil along with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly with your hands.
-Preheat a pot of water for the pasta over high heat.
-Preheat another large pan on medium high heat. Once pan has reached full temperature, add in the oiled chicken and evenly spread out in the pan. Allow the chicken to sear for 2 minutes untouched.
-After 2 minutes, stir the chicken around to sear the other side. There should already be some golden color forming on the chicken if your pan is hot enough.
-After about 5 minutes of cooking time on the chicken, add in the sliced mushrooms. Add additional salt and pepper and stir.
-Right after adding the mushrooms, add salt to the pasta water and add in the pasta. Give the pasta a big stir to prevent sticking. Cook according to the box, approximately 10 minutes.
-Stir the chicken and mushrooms every minute or two, allow the mushrooms to reduce in volume.
-After several minutes the mushrooms should have reduced in volume. At this time, add in the sliced sun dried tomatoes and stir.
-Several minutes later, deglaze the pan by adding in the wine. Be sure to use a spatula to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
-After just about a minute the wine will have reduced significantly in volume, add in the chicken stock and again stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to release any remaining bits. Continue to reduce the sauce over medium high heat.
-By the time the sauce has reduced, the pasta should be almost ready. Reserve a small amount of the starchy water then drain but do not rinse the pasta.
-Turn the heat down on the sauce to low and juice the half lemon into the sauce along with ¼ cup of the starchy water. Add in the pasta and the butter. Stir the pasta until the butter has all but disappeared into the sauce.
-Add in the pesto, turn off the heat, and stir until evenly incorporated.
-Serve and enjoy!

Видео Chicken Pesto Pasta With Mushrooms And Sun Dried Tomatoes Recipe канала Simply Elegant Home Cooking