Chicken, Penne and Broccolini – Leftover Remix

Written by Diana - January 11, 2012 3 Comments

Sometimes I am at odds with my son about dinner. If it takes too long, he won’t bother. If he has to read directions, he won’t bother. If it takes too many pots and pans, he won’t bother. This isn’t to say he’s hopeless or can’t cook. Slowly we are building up his repetoire and the meals he does cook are very delicious. My method with him is to encourage him to try to experiment by adding different vegetables and herbs to a basic recipe.

This time we took some chicken from our roast chicken the other night and added pasta, some broccolini, a few herbs, smash some galic and voila – dinner is served. This is a good college kid meal, you can change up the pasta, the veggies, substitute the oil with broth to make it a little lighter. Swap the lemon with white or red wine vinegar for a little different. We stood side by side at the stove cooking this dish. When we were done, I asked my son if he thought he could do it all over again, and he assured me that he could.

Chicken, Penne and Broccolini – Leftover Remix

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

This is a good throw together recipe. Tonight we used leftover

Author: Diana

Recipe type: Main

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 lb pasta (penne)
Nice bunch Vegetables (broccolini)
1½ cups cooked meat (leftover chicken)
2 garlic cloves
Herbs and other veggies (dried tomatoes, basil)
Salt & Pepper
Grated Parmesan
Olive Oil (or broth)
acid (lemon juice)

Instructions

In a pasta pot, boil water and cook pasta. When the pasta is pre-al dente add in any fresh veggies that need to cook through.
In a separate saute pan, heat up about 2 tbs of olive oil. Add in garlic to saute, along with the pre-cooked chicken and any defrosted frozen veggies or dried veggies. Stir around, heating up the chicken, veggies and herbs.
Zest the lemon over the saute, then squeeze the juice over top.
Drain the Pasta and Cooked broccolini, toss with the pan of saute.
Grate parmesan over top, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Notes

I taught my son how to hold a lemon the cut end over the palm of your hand and squeeze the juice over your cupped hand to keep the seeds from going into the dish.