11 August 2015

Zucchini and chicken in a creamy lemon-garlic cheese sauce

Zucchini again? Naturellement. C'est la saison. What made this pasta, chicken, and zucchini dish so delicious was the garlic, lemon, and grated parmesan cheese that flavored the creamy sauce.

Pasta and chicken with zucchini
in a garlicky lemon-parmesan cream sauce

1 lb. fusilli, penne, or macaroni pasta, cooked
1 lb. zucchini cut into 1" pieces
2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 Tbsp. butter + 1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 or 4 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
200 ml heavy cream
1 cup grated parmesan (or other) cheese
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
the finely grated zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta following package instructions. Reserve about 2 cups of the pasta water. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat the butter and oil over medium high heat. Add the zucchini and saute until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Take the zucchini out of the pan and put it into a serving dish. Saute the chicken in the same pan until done and lightly browned. Take the chicken out of the pan and add it to the zucchini in the serving dish.

Reduce the heat, add the cream to the cooking juices in the pan, and cook it until the cream is simmering. Add the garlic and let it cook for a minute.

Put the chicken, zucchini, and pasta into the pan and toss everything in the in cream. Add some pasta water to make just enough cream sauce to coat all the ingredients.

Add the parmesan and mix to combine. You might want to add some more of the reserved pasta water to melt the cheese and thin the sauce. Finally, add the lemon zest and lemon juice and toss again. Cook for a minute or two to let all the flavors combine and heat everything through. Serve immediately. Don't spare the black pepper.

Here are the ingredients after they were cooked and just before I stirred everything together into the cream sauce.

We still have a dozen fairly large zucchinis sitting in a basket in the kitchen, plus three big English cucumbers. And now the green beans have started producing. So today we'll eat green beans with pork chops, and probably a cucumber salad. Tomorrow, it'll be back to the zucchini diet.

18 comments:

  1. I should look at your food posts only after breakfast!

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    Replies
    1. http://www.newsweek.com/windows-10-recording-users-every-move-358952

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    2. Let's try not to get paranoid! (I bet Apple does the same things, at one level or another, and so does Google of course.)

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    3. That's what happens on iPad with Siri! Privacy is an obsolete word!

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  2. chm... same problem... need food!

    Ken... cut out all pasta and creamy sauces... this is when I lose weight... normally.
    BUT... this looks just too tempting.... oh well, diet starts tomorrow... possibly... whenever......
    Tim

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    Replies
    1. Better to walk more rather than go on strict diets. Manger bien et bouger plus, voilà la recette du bonheur.

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    2. Regime, moi?
      No, the only diet I go on is a "seefood" diet...
      see food and scoff it!
      Hence the weight loss in salad season, fills me up....
      but contains very little.

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  3. I'll definitely be making this one! My colleagues sitting next to me want to, as well:)

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  4. That chicken dish looks extremely delicious. At first I thought it was a risotto; nice and creamy. I'm going to try this! As for Windows 10 ... I don't have the courage to venture that way. Even though I hate Windows 8, I'll stick to it, for the time being. Too afraid to lose important data and photos :(

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  5. That looks yummy! What do they call heavy cream in France, Ken? I'm fairly sure that we can't get it here.

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    1. I use crème fraîche liquide, either fresh or stérilisée. It's fine for this purpose, and most purposes. You could also use crème fraîche épaisse since the cream is thinned down with some of the pasta water.

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    2. Thanks, Ken. We;re going to try this one some time soon. Sorry for not replying sooner. We had quite a rough week all of a sudden - had to have one of our dogs 'put to sleep'. :(((

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    3. Sorry to hear that, elgee. Sympathies.

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  6. Not a big zucchini fan but this looks absolutely delicious! Sue

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    1. A friend of ours told us she didn't care much for zucchini -- no taste, no fiber, she said. Then she had a vegetarian house guest and they came over here in summertime. The guest said she'd love a zucchini or two to cook for dinner. Afterwards, our friend who didn't like zucchini said wow, if the ones I buy at the supermarket tasted like those you grow, I'd eat them all the time!

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  7. I am going to try making it without the chicken. I am living in Farm Country NY right now and they are practically giving the zucchini away now. lucky me.

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