Recipe: Sautéed Chicken and Pasta with a Leek and Onion Cream Sauce

So, I picked up leeks a little while ago with plans to make my Fettuccine and Sweet Italian Sausage in a Parmesan-Leek Sauce. When I left the house this morning, I set chicken out to thaw, having completely forgotten about the leeks (which have been languishing in the veggie drawer for over a week now), and planned to just wing it for dinner tonight. When I got home in the evening and starting getting prepped to make dinner, I found the leeks in the fridge and decided to just do a different take on that sauce from the original recipe, and the result was delicious. Leeks, onion, and garlic all have strong flavors, but blended together with heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, butter, and seasoning, they mellow out, creating a light, creamy sauce that pairs perfectly with chicken (and could work with a lot of other white meats).

iPhone 5 photo...not too shabby (I was too hungry and lazy to run upstairs and grab my camera)

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• 2 leeks, cleaned and cut in half (remove all of the green top part and the roots/bottom; soak in warm water for a few minutes to help remove any grit and grim)
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Approx. 1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2-4 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2-4 tbsp. white wine (cooking grade is fine)
• 2-4 tbsp. dried oregano
• 2-4 tbsp. lemon pepper (if you don't have this, just add some extra pepper and dry lemon peel, or skip it altogether) 
• Approx. 1/4 cup heavy cream (add more as needed)
• 2 chicken breasts, whole or cut into strips
• 1 package (approx. 16 oz.) spaghetti or linguine (you could also try a small pasta, like penne or rotini—they could work very well with the sauce)
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, then add the leeks and cook for 2-4 minutes, until tender. Drain the leeks and put them in the food processor. Heat a little butter and olive oil in a medium pan over medium-high heat and add the onion. Cook until tender, then put it in the food processor. Add garlic, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, white wine, oregano, lemon pepper, salt, and pepper to the onion and leeks. Blend in the food processor until well-blended (the mixture likely won't be completely smooth, but this is fine—a little texture is good for this sauce). With the food processor running, slowly add the heavy cream. Sauce will be not too thin but not too thick. Pour it into a small pot and warm it over medium heat on the stove—add a little water or milk if you need to thin it out. In the same pan you used for the onion, add a little butter and olive oil, heat over medium-high heat, then add the chicken (season the chicken with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper). When partially cooked through, add the white wine (I just poured a splash in) and let it cook down. When the chicken is cooked through, it should be golden brown and no wine should be left in the pan. Reduce the heat when the chicken is cooked through to prevent overcooking. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, lightly salt it, then add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 5 minutes). Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the sauce (I reserved a few big spoonfuls to pour over the chicken) and stir/toss to coat. Serve the chicken atop the pasta and top with sauce, if desired. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

This dish is flavorful and creamy, but not overly rich. The strong flavors of the onion, leek, and garlic blend well together and the heavy cream and Parmesan cheese help even out the flavor. Cooking the chicken with butter and white wine helps brown it beautifully, while adding flavor and helping to keep it tender as it cooks. My parents only had one suggestions for this dish: add bacon. I agree—a little cooked, crumbled bacon sprinkled on the dish would heighten the saltiness and bring out the flavors in the sauce. But, even without that delicious pig meat, this dish is tasty.

Recipe: Seared Chicken and Angel Hair Pasta in a Lemon-Pistachio Cream Sauce

My mom and I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in our pantry, sifting through piles of candies and granola bars, rearranging and fitting new appliances (like my pasta maker and her rice steamer) onto shelves, and organizing just about everything else. Being surrounded by food of course got me thinking about what to make for dinner...we have tons of cans of tomatoes, some nice marinades, and an assortment of pastas, but I was at a loss when it came to deciding what to make. My mom kept pushing lemon-flavored dishes at me—"How about chicken in a nice lemon sauce?...didn't you make something with lemon once? Some sort of sauce? Maybe we could have something like chicken piccata." I sat down at the counter, idly flipping through a Betty Crocker best chicken recipes cookbook while she searched for a dinner recipe she could make for an event she's hosting this Sunday, and I came across a recipe for chicken with pistachios and lemon wedges. I loved the idea of combining salty pistachios (we have two huge bags of them in the pantry) with tart lemon, and I knew I could create my own unique dish to utilize these ingredients. I blended together toasted pistachios, parsley, garlic, and some seasonings to create the flavoring for my cream sauce and used leftover half-and-half to create the sauce base, then tossed the finished sauce with angel hair pasta. Chicken seasoned with dried lemon peel, salt, and pepper, cooked in butter, olive oil, and lemon juice completed the dish. This dish is very easy to make and the ingredients work so well together.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to approx. 1/2 inch thickness, cut in half
• 8-12 oz. angel hair pasta, or other long, thin pasta
• Approx. 1 pint half-and-half or heavy cream (I only had about a 1/2 pint of half-and-half, which was not quite enough)
• Cornstarch-and-water mixture, as needed (to thicken the sauce, if necessary)
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios, toasted*
• 1 garlic clove
• 2-4 tbsp. Italian flat-leaf parsley (I had about 1/4 of a bunch of parsley left and just threw in all the leaves from that)
• Approx. 1 tbsp. fresh lemon zest
• Approx. 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Dried lemon peel, to taste
• Butter, as needed
• Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a pan)

*To toast the pistachios, preheat the oven to 350*F. Make sure the shells are removed, then place them on a small baking sheet and heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until lightly fragrant and lightly golden-brown.

Directions

In a medium pot, bring lightly salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 4-7 minutes). Once done, drain the pasta and return it to the pot, then add a little butter to it to keep it from sticking. In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp. butter, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, and a little olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried lemon peel (and lemon pepper if you happen to have it), to the pan, and cook until it's no longer pink in the middle (about 10-15 minutes). Once you get the chicken in the pan, combine the pistachios, garlic, parsley, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in the food processor and pulse to blend, doing so until the pistachios are broken into small pieces (don't pulverize them though!). In a large pan, add 1-2 tbsp. butter and melt over medium heat. Add the pistachio mixture to the pan and cook for a few minutes until lightly fragrant. Slowly pour in the half-and-half, stirring constantly as you add it to the pan. Stir around the mixture and add a little more butter if desired, allowing the ingredients to blend. Continue to cook over medium heat, reducing the heat when the chicken gets close to being done. If the sauce seems thin, add a little cornstarch-and-water mix to the sauce (to be honest, I added a little too much, which made the sauce a little too thick, so only add a little at a time and allow it a few minutes to work before you add more if needed). Toss the cooked pasta with the finished sauce and top with chicken and some coarsely chopped pistachios.

The salty, nutty pistachios blend perfectly with the lemon flavors from both zest and juice, and they add a beautiful pop of green to the dish. Simple seasoning, with a splash of lemon, boosts the flavor of the chicken and completes the dish.