Simple Chicken and Pasta

I haven't been cooking many blog-worthy things lately.  It is eleventy billion degrees here (I can only be off by 2 degrees, max), so I've been all about quick, easy, light, and *not* heating up the entire house.  Due to the heat, I've also been cooking much later than usual which means LOTS of bleached-out flash pictures.  Sorry.

At any rate, this was born:

Take half a large purple onion and cut that puppy up.  Add 2-3 tbsp of minced garlic, 3 tbsp of olive oil, and pop those puppies into a skillet over high heat.  You want to cook all of this until the chicken gets nice and seared on both sides and the onions get transparent, but not caramelized.  Pro tip:  pat your chicken dry before putting it in the skillet.  This helps you get that pretty sear.

I also added a dash of sea salt, a bit of black pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and about 1 tbsp each of basil and parsley.

Add 2 cups of uncooked pasta of your choice and about a cup and a half of water.  Leave it in there with the chicken so that as the chicken cooks, the juices will come out and form sort of a tasty broth that will help flavor the noodles.  Keep cooking it on high heat until the noodles get soft.

The water should all cook off before then, so once it does, add water 1/2 cup at a time, until the noodles are al dente.  You don't want a lot of excess water because you want the flavor to really stick to everything instead of losing it down the sink when you strain.  :)

Once the noodles are done to the desired tenderness, dice up a few roma tomatoes (I used two large ones), and toss it all together.  Dice up the chicken, too, if you prefer.

Plate it up, top with parmesan, and you're good to go!  This is very simple and quick and only takes the one large skillet, so it is also easy clean-up.  It came out light, flavorful, and fresh-tasting, which is a super bonus when it is so hot you feel like you very well may keel over if you eat something too awfully heavy!!

<3

WW