Penne With Chicken Pesto

The  penne pesto chicken with  a delicious recipe recipe using pasta. It is an easy dish to prepare, however, it will give you an exquisite result that will make you look like a professional. Even so, you should keep in mind that this recipe requires a time in the fridge of approximately one hour.

Ingredients for the pesto penne

• 450 grams of penne pasta
• 500 grams of chicken breast
• 200 grams of liquid cream
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley and basil
• 80 grams of toasted pine nuts
• 75 grams of grated Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation

This recipe is very easy to prepare, you just have to take care of the cooking time, especially that of the pasta, to avoid being too hard or too soft.

Finely chop the parsley leaves, basil and garlic. Reserve the garlic in a separate container and put the parsley and basil in a food processor. When these ingredients have been well incorporated, add the garlic and process everything until it forms a paste.

Proceed to add the pine nuts and cheese, leaving them for no more than thirty seconds. To finish, add a splash of olive oil and remove the mixture from the robot, separate by halves into two different containers.

Cut the breast into small strips and put them in a bowl along with half of the mixture you have created, stir everything very well and put the container in the fridge for at least an hour.

When there are 15 minutes to remove the chicken from the fridge, preheat the oven to 200ºC. Spread the chicken strips on a tray and bake for at least 20 minutes.

And now…

While the chicken is done, bring water to boil in a deep pot. When the water is bubbling, add the pasta with a little olive oil and a teaspoon of salt, leave it there for 5 minutes. When it is al dente, we remove from the water and let it drain.

Once the chicken has finished baking, remove it from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes at room temperature.

Now proceed to heat the other half of the mixture (pesto) that you made earlier. Add the cream and take the opportunity to season. Stir everything so that it thickens a little and add the chicken strips that you had resting.

Now mix the pasta with the breast and pesto in a large bowl . Incorporate everything very well, you will see how the pasta gains a beautiful green color. Now all you need is to serve the pasta in a deep plate, sprinkle with a little oregano and Parmesan cheese, accompanied by a delicious sweet salad.

Additional tips

• In case you do not have a food processor,  you can use a grinder or, if necessary, the blender.
• The point of the paste can vary depending on the size and temperature of the water. We recommend adding the pasta when the water is boiling, in this way you will considerably reduce the cooking time.
• When we say that the pasta is al dente we mean  the point where it is soft, but when we split it we can see that it has a white line or point (in the case of spaghetti) in the center.
• The pesto  can also be done manually. S owever, it will take much effort. It is made by chopping each of the herbs very well and then you must mix them with a little olive oil.
• You must stir everything very well until you achieve a pasty texture and, once you reach this point, add the Parmesan. Just when you are going to serve you should add the toasted pine nuts and that’s it, your pesto sauce made by hand.
• If you want to save time you can simply use one of the pesto sauces that are offered in the market.