Chicken Broccoli Rotini
I was asked by a lady friend if I had a good, light recipe for some sort of chicken-broccoli-ziti dish. One without a cream sauce. I promptly replied, “No, but for you and only you, I’ll go into the lab (my kitchen) and invent one!” Here’s what happened …
Over a week’s time I consulted several cooking web sites, perused through many cookbooks and didn’t really find something that would suit her fancy, or even more important, mine! So, I created one of my own. I used rotini pasta instead of ziti. When I cook, it’s all about what I want. Of course, you can use whatever type of pasta you like best. I only made it once and it turned out pretty damn good. Give it a look.
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
1 pound rotini pasta
1 stick salted butter
1 cup white wine
1½ cup chicken broth
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 broccoli crowns (a little less than 2 pounds)
Juice of one lemon
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Melt butter in a heavy sauté pan. Add oil and garlic and simmer on very low heat for 10 minutes. Add wine and 2 cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Cut chicken into small bite size pieces and add to the sauté pan and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Chicken cooks fast when it’s cut into small pieces. Season with salt & pepper. Add the lemon juice (no seeds please).
Chop broccoli into small bite size pieces and steam a large pot with a steamer basket for 3-5 minutes. Boil rotini separately to your own liking (al dente for me). In a mixing bowl whisk together the other ½ cup of chicken broth with the flour until the flour is completely dissolved. Turn the heat to high and add the flour mixture to the sauté pan, mix well. Let it boil for a minute or so while you’re stirring. This will thicken the sauce a bit. Once it’s thickened, add steamed broccoli to the sauté pan, toss well and let sit covered over low heat for 5 minutes. Add rotini to the sauté pan and sprinkle broccoli with Romano cheese. Serve with a smile!
Looks yummy! That said, I’m not sure if it yet meets your friend’s standards? If she was looking to be rid of the cream, she won’t likely be happy with a half cup of olive oil either — and YIKES I just NOW noticed the stick of butter, to boot! Take Two?
AK
If health is the issue, my impression has been that EVOO is better than cream (saturated fats?). What is the scoop, Mr. Webmaster? Can you explain to us, in true Altonian fashion, which is better and why?
One more comment Mr. Pleasure Cooker. Since EVOO is an issue here, can you speak to a quote that is near and dear to my heart:
“The Three Tenors of the Italian kitchen, olio extravergine di oliva, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and prosciutto di Parma.”
I can’t remember where I found it.
How do you feel about this? Would you agree? What about garlic? Would you supplant garlic with any of three mentioned above?
Just wondering!
I’m more of a Pecorino Romano guy. Garlic is already well represented in the Cajun Holy Trinity: sautéed onion, celery & garlic! As for the cream, I don’t think it was a health issue, she just doesn’t like cream sauce.
holy trinity is onion celery and bell pepper.
Something like that.