Roasted Chicken and Broccolini Lemon Pasta

 

Oh yessssss. Fresh. Healthy. Light. Flavorful. Crunchy. Salty. Lemony. I could go on and on and on. My mom made this for me after falling in love at a dinner party. I think I have eaten it about three times now, so I figured why not learn how to recreate it myself? 

When you're in a rush to get dinner on the table, this recipe can go from difficult to easy in just a couple steps. Tonight, since there weren't any rotisserie chickens available at the market, I had to roast my own chicken at home. Here I will show how you can make this in a jiffy without all the labor!

 Here is the beautiful chicken I roasted at home, but for the speedy cook, buy a rotisserie chicken at your local market so you can start this immediately when you get home.

 I higgghly recommend toasting the pine nuts before starting the recipes steps because the flavor drastically changes, adding such wonderful flavor. 

Before, I have always eaten this with plain fettuccine noodles. I just so happened to stumble upon the lemon & pepper pappardelle pasta when buying ingredients at Trader Joe's and decided to test it out. Why not use lemon pasta when the main flavor already was fresh lemon juice? It worked out very well. I can't tell you which one was better, just slightly different.

 Chop the end stalks of the broccolini to make them bite size and squeeze 1/4 cup of lemon juice (2-3 lemons).

 

Boil the broccolini in salted water for 2 minutes until crisp-tender. You don't want to cook completely because they will cook after you remove, AND when you place back into the final pot to mix with the other ingredients before plating.

I can't even express how deep my love for this dish is. Maybe it's just because I'm obsessed with citrus and cheese, but I truly believe you will love every bit of it. Especially the leftovers. The day after is probably my favorittte. All the lemony goodness soaks up into the brocollini and the flavor is unreal!

Ingredients:

Salt

1 pound Broccolini, trimmed and stalks cut

1 (9 ounce) package of pappardelle or fettuccine pasta

1 (14 ounce) can of reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)

4 cups of shredded chicken (1 roasted chicken will yield 3-4 cups of shredded meat)

3/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon zest

freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccolini and cook until crisp-tender, 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the broccolini to a large bowl. Add the fettuccine to the same pot of water and cook, stirring to prevent sticking. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet, bring the chicken broth and the lemon juice to a boil over medium- high heat. Boil for 5 minutes, or until the broth has reduced by half. Add the chicken and simmer just until heated through, about 2 minutes. Add the cooked pasta, broccolini, pine nuts, olive oil and lemon zest. Toss to coat, adding 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese to melt. Then add reserved cooking liquid from the pasta if dry to help moisten. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the pasta, sprinkling the remaining parmesan and parsley on top. YUM.