Garlic Parmesan Pasta with Chicken (no cream)
A delicious garlicky pasta with lots of parmesan cheese and perfectly cooked golden brown chicken. The definition of a perfect weeknight meal!
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- 1 - 2 chicken breasts (or thighs, see notes)
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 200 grams dried pasta, spaghetti or fettuccine work best (or 300 grams fresh pasta)
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic finely sliced
- ½ cup white wine I used a sauvignon blanc
- 70 grams cold butter cut into four cubes
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 60 grams parmesan very finely grated
- ½ cup flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cook your pasta in well salted boiling water, I usually undercook by 1 min from package instructions. Reserve a cup of pasta water before draining.
- Flatten the chicken breast to an even thickness (about 1-1.5cm), I do this by laying some plastic wrap over the top and hitting with a rolling pin.
- If you have a particularly thick chicken breast then you could butterfly it or cut it up into bite size pieces before cooking. Feel free to cook it however you would like to.
- Season the chicken well with salt and pepper on each side then dust with the flour.
- Heat the olive oil in a fry pan over a medium high heat and fry the chicken for 2 mins each side (or until cooked through if yours is thicker).
- Lightly wrap in foil, set aside and slice just before serving.
For the sauce
- Put the tablespoon of olive oil in a cold skillet large enough to fit the cooked pasta in at end and add the sliced garlic.
- Bring to a gentle sizzle over a medium heat then cook for 30 seconds or so, moving it around so it doesn't brown. Cooking it from cold might seem strange but it helps to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor.
- Lower the heat slightly and add the wine, it will bubble up a lot.
- Cook so it is gently simmering for about 4 mins, you are wanting to reduce it down roughly by half.
- Add the butter pieces in, one at a time, letting each piece melt and whisking well in between each addition. A flat whisk is brilliant for this.
- You should end up with a very yellow and slightly thickened sauce at the end. Try and time the pasta cooking so you can add the pasta straight in to butter sauce at this stage. You can take the sauce off the heat if you need to though.
- Add a ¼ cup reserved pasta water and whisk vigorously. I like to whisk and shake the pan at the same time to get a nice emulsified sauce.
- Add the black pepper and mix through.
- Add the cooked pasta straight in and toss with the sauce using tongs. Arrange the pasta in a nice level layer, spreading it out.
- Turn the heat down to low and sprinkle the parmesan over the top of the pasta in an even layer.
- Leave it alone until it is melting on top, about 1 min, then take some tongs and spin the pasta around and around until you get a lovely glossy sauce. Check out video below to see this in action!
- Taste for seasoning and add salt if you need. Add the parsley and mix through.
- Serve straight away, top with the sliced chicken and some extra parmesan.
Video
Notes
Chicken - this recipe is for two and it really depends how much meat you want to eat. You could do one or two chicken breasts or thighs each. I use good quality free range chicken which means the cuts are thinner. If you are using quite thick breasts then you might need to butterfly it first.
Parmesan - Please grate your own, pre-shredded cheese has additives that prevent it from melting into a sauce nicely. It needs to be really fine so use either a microplane, the star side of a box grater or a great method is to cut it into squares and grind to a powder with a smoothie maker.
Parsley - It's totally optional, leave it out if you don't like it. I think it adds a nice fresh touch to an otherwise quite rich sauce.
Salt and pepper - If you have made my recipes you probably know I am a big pepper fan. You can absolutely leave the pepper out if you wish.
Timing - It's always tricky timing the sauce and the pasta cooking in any recipe. This sauce takes roughly 7 - 8 mins before you add the pasta so if using dried pasta you can start the sauce after the pasta has been cooking for a couple of mins. Hope that makes sense!