Light and Lemony

If you ever see some lemon pepper pasta at the store. Pick some up and make this dish. I found mine at Trader Joe's. This is papperelle style pasta BTW.

Here's how you do it and the recipe:

Lemon Pepper Chicken Pasta

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

4 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely choppped

1 cup chicken broth

1 head of brocciflower (this is a broccoli and cauliflower hybrid. It's much mellower than cauliflower)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. butter

salt and pepper to taste

1 package lemon pepper pasta

1 cup heavy cream

juice of half a lemon

Cut up your chicken, season with salt and pepper and put in bowl with corn starch. Shake the chicken around in the corn starch and set aside. Cook your pasta a few minutes UNDER the package directions. You want the pasta slightly under cooked. I cut my broccoflower into flowerets and cook them with the pasta (the broccoflower takes longer to cook than the cubed chicken).

Saute your garlic and shallots with the olive oil and butter (I wanted a butter taste but less fat and the olive oil keeps the butter from overbrowning BTW). When shallots and garlic are slightly soft put in the chicken and cook until slightly pink. Slowly add your chicken broth so it thickens from the cornstarch. Add your undercooked pasta in the chicken mixture and then add your heavy cream. Keep stirring so the chicken and pasta finish cooking and sauce* thickens/reduces. Season with you salt and pepper. Finish with the juice of half lemon and serve while hot.

This will not be a overly saucey pasta dish. Just enough moisture to coat and flavor but not too much to drip on you. The lemon from the pasta and extra lemon in the sauce is so subtle and delightful with the garlic. Also I find the lemon in the dish help cut the 'cabbagey' taste of the brocciflower. And can I just say, I love the light spring green color of this dish!

K-man thought the lemon in the dish reminded him of some Thai dish he eaten before and here I was going for a North Italy kinda flavor....go figure...LOL Anyway, he loved it, cleaned his plate and THAT is all that matters!