Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Pasta

Submitted by THE chimes

"I made a vow in April not to get groceries again until payday. I only get paid once a month..so I got pretty creative. This was one of the recipes that came from this experiment. I had roasted red peppers in the freezer from a few months back that I meant to use for a soup but never did. I always have frozen chicken breasts on hand. The fresh parsley was frozen from a previous recipe... anyway, you get the idea. :) The only variation I would make is to add more onion (I only had so much) and possibly a can of italian tomato paste. Any suggestions are welcome. Again, I just threw together things I had around the house."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 roasted red peppers
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1⁄4 cup diced onion
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leaves
• 16 ounces whole wheat pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

directions

1. Roast your red peppers in the oven at 450° for 15-20 minutes on each side. To prepare for roasting, brush the peppers with 2 T vegetable oil (don't use olive oil as it can smoke at a lower temperature). Place on a shallow baking dish (don't use a cookie sheet as the juices can flow off the sides). For a more in-depth tutorial, see here: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Roasting-Peppers/Detail.aspx Make sure to remove the seeds before proceeding.
2. While you're waiting for the bell peppers to cool, in a large frying pan, heat 2 T olive oil then add the onion, garlic and spices, except the bay leaves. Saute for 5-7 minutes on medium-high heat.
3. Add your (thawed) chicken to the frying pan. Cook through on both sides at medium heat.
4. Chop up your roasted red peppers and add to the chicken. Saute for 5 minutes on medium heat.
5. If you decide to add a can of tomato paste, I'd recommend skipping this step. At this point, there will be a lot of extra liquid in the chicken mixture. Get out a small sauce pan (I actually used what I was going to boil the pasta in for this) and pour the additional liquid in it and cook on medium to high heat uncovered for 10 minutes while the chicken mixture finishes cooking. Try to get it cooked down a bit. Pour this back into the chicken mixture. You can skip this step if you'd like, but the chicken mixture gets kind of watery.
6. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, and add to the frying pan to toss with chicken mixture. I tossed an additional 2 T of olive oil in at this point, but this is optional. Cook for 2-4 minutes or until you think the mixture is combined.
7. Take off heat and serve with grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese.