Simple but very Tasty_Recipe: Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

I have another lemon pasta recipe on this site, and it’s always been a summertime favorite of mine. If you haven’t traveled to the land of mixing lemon and pasta, it can seem a little foreign at first. But the fact is, it’s a dreamy and delicious pairing that knocks my socks off every time.

I added some grilled chicken to the top of this pasta dish at the end…but the grilled chicken is really secondary. It’s the pasta here—a creamy concoction of lemon, cream, and basil—that deserves top billing.

I’d pounded some chicken breasts until they were uniform thickness, then marinated them for about 24 hours in the following concoction:

Olive oil
Juice of four lemons
Dijon
A tiny bit of honey
A dash of salt

Grill ‘em up, set ‘em aside and kept ‘em warm.

Boil some pasta. I used penne because penne is my life.

Oh, you didn’t know penne was my life? It is. It’s true. I live for it. Make all my important decisions because of it.

Penne. Amen.

This is important: When you drain the pasta (cook until al dente), be sure to reserve a good cup of the hot pasta water. We’ll need it in a bit to help the consistency of the sauce.

You’ll need another four lemons and a bunch of basil. Cut the lemons in half and have them ready!

Also grate up a good cup (more if you’re a rebel like me) of either Parmesan of Romano cheese. (I used the latter; it’s all I had!)

In the same pot you used to boil the pasta, melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat.

Use your mutant alien hand to squeeze in the juice of 3 to 4 lemons.

Let this all heat up, whisking it together to combine.

Pour in a mix of 1/2 cup of cream and 1/2 cup of half-and-half.

Half-and-half, because I’m a health nut like that.

When the cream is heated, dump in the cheese.

Whisk it together until the cheese melts, and add a dash of salt and some freshly ground pepper.

Dump in the cooked pasta and stir it around until it’s totally coated. Now—this is the important part!—if the consistency seems a little thick and gloopy (which it certainly can, because of the amount of cheese), drizzle in as much of the hot pasta water as you need in order to loosen it up a bit. I’ve always used the hot pasta water trick and it’s always worked fine for me…so if this culinary trick has been refuted somewhere along the line, I don’t want to know about it.

I can’t HANDLE the truth.

Once the pasta/sauce is perfect, give the basil a rough chop, and add half of it to the pasta. Stir it together…

And pour it into a heated serving bowl.

Sprinkle the rest of the chopped basil over the top. And don’t skimp on the basil, my friends! The more the better—it’s such a yummy complement to the bright lemon flavor.

Finally, slice up the grilled chicken and lay it all over the top. Yummy! Garnish the whole thing with lemon halves…

And a pretty cluster of basil leaves.

Doesn’t this look a little like marywanna?

This really is a treat. The lemon flavor definitely shines through, and is a different experience than a pasta sauce with wine or chicken broth in the base. You can add grilled chicken like I did, or (even better) a bunch of grilled shrimp. How delicious would that be?

Enjoy this! It’s a little outside of the norm…a refreshing (and ridiculously easy) summer meal.