Restaurant Quality Chicken and Mushroom Pasta in 25 Minutes

This is one of those dishes that's made by mistake or just using up leftover ingredients in the fridge. What I've got here is a creamy garlic, mushroom chicken, spinach, sun-dried tomato pasta. I know there's a lot to it, you can change it up, use what you've got, but this right here is insanely good. As it's now November, Black Friday sales are coming out. We're gonna be offering free shipping on my book, Dig In. It's only available at cookdinehost.com. I've got links in the description as well as in the comments. And as this video goes out on the Wednesday the 20th, it's actually my birthday as well, so birthday present for me to you is what it is. Go grab a copy, it's the best way to support me. To start this off, we'll place a pot of water onto our stove top and then whack this over a high heat. We can just let this start boiling in the background whilst we do everything else. And we can just place a lid on as well. It's going to speed up the process. The ingredients for this are one shallot or shallot, however you wanna pronounce it. Take off the end, slice it in half, peel it, leave that root intact so it holds together. Go across, make thin slices, do the horizontal slice if you'd like to, and then dice this into small to medium-sized pieces, trimming off any excess flesh from around the root. What I have here is six cloves of garlic. Thinly slice them the whole way across. You can also roughly chop them. The reason I do thinly slice for a pasta dish is because you can cook them for a little bit longer and you actually get a little bit better and a nuttier flavor on them. Obviously, I usually use pastes for most of my recipes, but that will burn a lot quicker. I've got a mix of herbs, two grams of oregano, basil, and flat-leaf parsley. That's two grams of each or about 0.1 ounces. Scrunch them all together and then roughly chop, making sure that there's no large leaves or stems. If you don't wanna use fresh herbs, I'll leave dried alternatives in the description. I'm using sun-dried tomatoes, 100 grams worth. If you don't like these, you don't have to use them, but they do add a really nice depth of flavor. They come in strips, they come whole, they come sliced. Whatever you get, just give them a rough chop. Just break them down. I like to make these quite small. That way it will mix through the sauce and you get a better flavor throughout. Whenever I make a pasta dish, I always like to add mushrooms. You get that really nice nutty, earthy flavor and a little bit of sweetness too. I'm using 200 grams of Swiss browns, also known as cremini or baby portabellos. Slice these in half, lay them flat, and then slice into about small to medium-sized strips. Can get them a little bit larger if you wanted to, and you can also slice them whole. It just depends on the size of the mushroom. Now with the chicken, I'm using about 600 grams or eight to 10 chicken tenderloins here. You can use chicken breast if you wanted to because we do have to do something with these that can be a bit of a pain. For this, we do need to remove that tendon, and an easy way to do it is get a fork, use the prongs, and put it in between that tendon. Then in the other hand, grip some paper towel. Grip hold of that tendon, otherwise it will slip out of your hands. Push down with the fork and then pull up with the paper towel. You do need a little bit of elbow grease here to be able to pull this out, and it should come out in one piece. Don't worry if you tear the chicken up a little bit because it's going to get chopped in this recipe anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Add the chicken into a mixing bowl and also add in one teaspoon of sweet paprika. Season to your preference with a little bit of salt. Hit it up with some cracked black pepper, 15 cracks worth, and also add about one teaspoon of olive oil. Get in there with clean hands and then just mix this all around. Make sure that paprika's coating everything and the olive oil is spread throughout. Like I said, if you start tearing up the chicken a little bit, it doesn't matter too much. It's all going to get chopped up anyway. All we're looking for, something that looks like this. Place a pan over medium-high heat. Add in one tablespoon of olive oil, or you can use some extra sun-dried tomato oil if you have any left over. Add in the chicken, and we're going to spread this out. Do this in batches if the pan is not big enough, and then sear this for about two to two and a half minutes until you have that nice golden color. Flip the chicken over and repeat that same time again to get that nice sear all over. And if you're using chicken breast, you can have it cut in slices or you can pre-dice it. That choice is all yours. It's pretty much the same cooking time. Remove the chicken from the pan and allow it to rest for a couple of minutes before we can then chop this up just into nice diced bite-sized pieces. Something that looks like this. Now back into the same pan over a medium-high heat, add in one tablespoon of sun-dried tomato oil or olive oil and one tablespoon or 14 grams of unsalted butter. Add in the shallot or shallot as well as the chopped up mushrooms, and then hit it up with a good seasoning of salt as well as cracked black pepper. 20 cracks worth. Give it a good mix around. Don't let the mushrooms get coated in the butter and oil. We're going to saute this for about six to eight minutes until the mushrooms have released their moisture, it's evaporated, and then it starts to caramelize and you get that really nice browned nutty flavor on the mushrooms. Add in the thinly sliced garlic or the chopped garlic, whichever you chose to use. Mix this all together and continue sauteing for one minute until that fragrance and the aromatics within the garlic has mixed through everything. You get that really nice aroma in your kitchen. It's time to introduce the chopped up fresh herbs or dried alternatives if you've chosen to use that. The chopped up sun-dried tomatoes. I'm adding in one quarter of a teaspoon of dried chili flakes. That is completely optional, but just adds that nice little hint on the palate. And 350 milliliters of thickened or heavy cream, also known as whipping cream, with a fat percentage of about 35%. Give that a good mix around and let the flavors become friends. Give it a taste so we can check it for seasoning and then adjust to your preference. Add a little bit of salt and a little bit more cracked black pepper. Mix that all together and bring this to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and then cook this for about six to eight minutes until nice and thick. In the meantime, the pasta water will be at a boil, so take off the lid. Generously season it with salt. Don't make it ocean water though. And then add in 250 grams or 8.8 ounces of a pasta of your choice and cook for one minute less than the packet instructions. Going back to the sauce, this has been cooking away for about seven minutes. It's nice and thick. If you run a spatula through it, you can create those ribbons or it just means you can see the bottom of the pan. Add in 60 grams or 2.2 ounces of baby spinach that's been washed. Mix this all around and cook it for about a minute and a half to two minutes until it's completely wilted through that cream. It's then time to add the chicken back into the pan along with any resting juices that may have accumulated on that resting tray. Mix this all through and cook this for about a minute. We're mainly focusing on bringing the heat back into the chicken and getting it nice and saucy. I will also mention that the pan is still over a low heat. Let's then remove and drain the pasta and reserve some of the water. Add that drained pasta into the sauce and then just gently mix everything through. Increase the heat to medium and cook this for one minute to finish off cooking that pasta. We also wanna make sure that this is completely coated in the sauce. It's then time to adjust using the starchy water and this is to your preference and the consistency you like. It is good to have a little bit of sauce but you don't want it to be completely drowning. As a finishing touch, I also added a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese and the amount is completely up to you. Now serving it up, do so in bowls. This recipe will serve three to four people. If you are doing it for four people, I do recommend increasing the amount of pasta but the chicken and the sauce is definitely enough for that. Hit it up with some more Parmesan cheese. I've got a little bit of chiffonade basil here. You can lightly tear it if you'd like to and finish it off with some cracked black pepper and that then leaves us with this delicious sun-dried tomato, creamy garlic mushroom chicken pasta. It looks and smells incredible. There's only one thing left to do and that is we can then dig in. This is so good. This pasta really does it for me. There is so much going on and there's so much flavor in there as well. It's super simple to make. Of course, you can change up the ingredients, just use what you've got. The mushrooms are nutty, they're buttery, the chicken's juicy and tender, the spinach, the fresh herbs, the sun-dried tomatoes, it all really makes a difference and just adds so much depth. Absolutely delicious pasta and I highly recommend you try it yourself. 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