Claire's Lemon Chicken Pasta

I needed to go grocery shopping yesterday for everything I had on my meal plan for the week, but I didn't want to take both kids. I much prefer going by myself or with only one kid. The baby is six months old, and I've only taken both kids with me once, and it was a pretty small shopping trip. Anyway, I was once again going to do the Crockpot Chicken Marsala but I realized I had the wrong kind of canned soup. I already had chicken out, so I scanned the pantry for anything else I could do with the chicken. I saw some lemon pepper papparadelle pasta I had bought at Trader Joe's and thought I'd do something with that. I had a couple recipes in mind that I kind of melded together to make this. I have to say I really enjoy coming up with something from scratch like this instead of following a recipe. It's a nice cooking challenge.

Claire's Lemon Chicken Pasta
2 chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Garlic powder
Onion powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup skim milk
4 ounces light cream cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp lemon zest
1 package Trader Joe's lemon pepper papparadelle pasta, cooked

Cut chicken breasts into bite-size chunks. Mound in a pile and sprinkle salt, pepper, dried oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder on chicken. Meanwhile heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet. Once the skillet is hot, add chicken and cook until no longer pink inside. Remove chicken from skillet. Deglaze pan with lemon juice. Add garlic but be careful not to burn it. Combine flour and skim milk, then add to skillet. Add in cream cheese and stir (I used a flat whisk) until cream cheese melts and sauce thickens. Add in parmesan cheese and lemon zest. Return chicken to skillet and stir to coat chicken. Add in cooked pasta and toss until pasta is coated in the sauce as well. Serve with shaved parmesan on top.

*****

This was really good. REALLY good. I added peas into mine, but I didn't like how they tasted with everything else, so I didn't include them in the ingredients. I think next time I'd make this I'd actually increase the sauce ingredients some so it was a little saucier, but the flavor was fantastic. I'm so glad my mad scientist chicken pasta concoction worked out okay!!



These are my new pasta bowls from Crate and Barrel. Aren't they cool? I've been wanting some like this for quite awhile. The only problem is that they're too wide for my dish cabinet. I've yet to come up with a solution, but I will!! I also bought the Parker Bowls because I've been eyeing them for quite some time.


The pasta I used. It was really fragrant (read: somewhat overwhelming lemon scent but in a good way) when I opened the package, but the pasta itself didn't taste super lemony once it was cooked.