Ground Chicken Pesto Pasta
Blog: www.nextinlime.com
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (230 g) pasta - uncooked, I prefer spaghetti or linguine
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 5 cloves garlic - thinly sliced
- 1 pound (450 g) ground chicken - aka chicken mince
- 1 teaspoon salt - adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes - adjust to taste ⓘ
- ¾ cup (180 ml) heavy/whipping cream - unsweetend
- ½ cup (50 g) freshly grated parmesan
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup basil pesto - I use store-bought
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ cup (55 g) sun dried tomatoes - finely chopped (Note A)
- ½ teaspoon sugar - to balance flavors
- some fresh basil for garnishing - optional
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Follow the package instructions to cook the pasta. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Then drain the pasta and set it aside.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet/pan over medium-low heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook until it starts to turn light golden. Keep an eye on it, as it can burn fast. Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta water to stop the garlic from cooking any further.
- Add ground chicken, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Turn the heat up to medium-high (or medium if your burner runs hot). Break up the lumps as you go. I prefer to leave the chicken bits slightly chunky. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the chicken is almost cooked. You don’t have to wait for any remaining liquid to cook off, as long as the chicken is done.
- Then add the cream, grated parmesan, and nutmeg. Cook until the cheese has melted into the sauce. Turn the heat down to low. Stir in the pesto, lemon juice, lemon zest, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and sugar. Mix well.
- Taste the sauce and adjust if needed. If you want more pesto flavor, add 1 tablespoon at a time, mix well, and taste again before adding more. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of cream or some of the remaining pasta water, mix, and check the consistency before adding more. Go slowly so you don’t dilute the sauce too much.
- At this point, you can mix in cooked pasta and let it warm up, or if the cooked pasta is still warm enough to your liking, you can spoon the sauce over it.
- Turn the heat off. Optionally, garnish with chopped fresh basil and serve right away!
Notes
Note A: Sun-dried tomatoes – use sun-dried tomatoes that come in jars with oil, not the dry ones packed in bags. You can also swap the regular cooking oil in the recipe with the oil from the jar. Just make sure there’s enough left in there to keep the remaining tomatoes covered.