Sunday, April 17, 2011

primavera chicken

When I ran across this recipe, I thought it sounded tasty but didn't plan on making it because it called for heavy cream and I'm not eating dairy right now. But then I decided to see what would happen if I simply substituted soy milk for the cream, even though they don't have the same consistency. It turned out so yummy, and it was healthier without the cream too! On a side note, I'm not sure why it's called primavera chicken, since it's not much like any other pasta primavera I've ever experienced (it is a little bit spicy), but it is really good.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/3 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips (that's a pretty specific amount. I just used 2 really big chicken breasts we had, I don't know how much they weighed)
  • 1 tsp. salt, divided
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper, divided
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
  • 1 c. sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 2/3 c. soy milk (like I said, this was originally cream)
  • 1/2 c. chicken broth
  • 8 oz linguini, prepared according to pkg directions
  • 2/3 c. pine nuts, toasted
  • 1/2 c. frozen peas, thawed

Directions: 
  1. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. In a large skillet, cook the chicken in oil over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink.  Remove and keep warm.
  2. In the same skillet, saute the red pepper, mushrooms, onions, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper just until vegetables are tender.  Add cream and broth.  Bring to a boil; cook until sauce is reduced by a third.
  3. Add chicken, linguini, pine nuts, peas, and remaining salt and pepper to sauce; heat through.

 The recipe also gave the optional suggestion of sprinkling parmesan cheese on top (which obviously I didn't do).

I didn't think of taking a picture til after we had already eaten, but here's what our leftovers look like. Yum!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds pretty good. Cream should be abolished in all its forms. Maybe the primavera is because it has Spring-like characteristics, whatever those are.

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