Garlic Butter Chicken & Pea Pasta (Print Version)

Tender chicken, sweet peas, and curly pasta in a rich garlic butter sauce. A comforting, family-friendly meal ready in 35 minutes.

# What You'll Need:

→ Chicken

01 - 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
02 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
03 - 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
04 - 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

→ Pasta & Vegetables

05 - 12 ounces curly pasta such as fusilli or rotini
06 - 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
07 - 2 tablespoons olive oil

→ Garlic Butter Sauce

08 - 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
09 - 4 garlic cloves, minced
10 - 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
11 - 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
12 - Zest of 1 lemon
13 - 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
14 - 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
15 - Salt and pepper to taste

# How to Make It:

01 - Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water according to package directions until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water, then drain and set aside.
02 - While pasta cooks, season chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and dried Italian herbs.
03 - Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden and cooked through. Remove chicken to a plate and set aside.
04 - Reduce heat to medium. Add butter to the same skillet. Once melted, add minced garlic and red pepper flakes; sauté for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant but not browned.
05 - Add peas and return cooked chicken to the skillet. Stir to warm through, approximately 1 minute.
06 - Add cooked pasta, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the skillet. Toss all ingredients together, adding reserved pasta water gradually until the sauce lightly coats the pasta.
07 - Remove from heat and stir in fresh parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
08 - Transfer to serving plates immediately. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley if desired.

# Additional Tips::

01 -
  • Everything cooks in under 40 minutes, leaving you time to actually sit down with your family.
  • The garlic butter sauce clings to every twist of pasta without feeling heavy or overdone.
  • Leftover rotisserie chicken works perfectly here, cutting your prep time in half.
  • Kids who claim they hate vegetables will eat those peas without complaint when theyre coated in lemon and Parmesan.
02 -
  • Dont let the garlic sit in the hot butter for more than a minute or two, because once it turns brown it gets bitter and no amount of lemon juice will save it.
  • Adding the pasta water gradually is crucial, if you dump it all in at once the sauce gets soupy instead of silky.
  • If your skillet isnt big enough to toss everything together comfortably, transfer it all to the pasta pot after draining, it gives you more room to mix without flinging noodles everywhere.
03 -
  • Use a microplane to zest the lemon directly over the skillet so those aromatic oils fall right into the sauce instead of onto your cutting board.
  • If you accidentally oversalt, a small squeeze of extra lemon juice or a pinch of sugar can balance it out without starting over.
  • Let the pasta water do the work of creating a creamy sauce, the starch acts like a natural thickener that butter and cheese cling to beautifully.
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