Chicken pesto pasta
Bowtie pasta and golden chicken tossed in bright basil pesto with juicy cherry tomatoes, on the table in about half an hour.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.79 a serving
- 690 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 12 oz farfalle
- 1¼ lb chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- ½ cup basil pesto
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan
- ¼ cup fresh basil, leaves torn (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 690 calories, 47 g protein, 68 g carbs and 24 g fat, and costs about $2.79 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken breasts? Boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add 2½ teaspoons of the salt, and bring it over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces, with the rest of the salt and the pepper, and wash your hands and board.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Cook the chicken 6 to 7 minutes, once or twice, until and the biggest piece reads 165°F.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 6 min 30 sec
Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
Cook the pasta in the water until , about 11 minutes.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Al dente. Al dente is Italian for “to the tooth”: pasta cooked until tender but with a slight firm bite in the center. It holds up in sauce and keeps softening a little after you drain it.
How you’ll know: Bite a piece a minute before the package time: tender, with a slight firm bite in the middle and no crunch.
High heatTimer: 11 min
Scoop out 1 cup of the , then the pasta.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Dolly’s tip: That starchy water is what turns pesto into a silky sauce instead of an oily one.Off the heat, the pasta with the chicken, pesto, tomatoes, parmesan and ¼ cup of the , adding more water at a time until glossy.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Dolly’s tip: Pesto goes dull and oily over direct heat, so mix it in off the stove.Scatter the basil over the top and serve.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Chicken broccoli pasta
30 min
Garlic parmesan canned chicken pasta
30 min
Ground pork and broccoli pasta
30 min
Lemon garlic rotisserie chicken pasta
30 min
30-minute dinners ›High-protein dinners ›What to make with chicken and parmesan ›What to make with chicken and tomatoes ›What to make with tomatoes and parmesan ›