Chicken Tenders in Garlic Tomato Sauce with Buccatini

Chicken Tenders in Garlic Tomato Sauce with Buccatini

I. crave. pasta. If anyone ever told me that I could not eat it, I would be devastated. Likewise, if anyone had ever told me when I was a young girl that I would love it as much as I do now I would have given them a funny look! I hated it as a child. I know, I was weird. Potatoes & Pasta....neither one of them were foods I wanted to eat as a child.

Still, as an adult, I'm not normally a tomato sauced pasta lover. I'd rather have a butter sauce, Asian sauce, or cream sauce with my pasta. However, Saturday I was craving a tomato-ey coated thick pasta. I had some buccatini left in my cupboard and I wanted to use that. I knew to use that I needed a sauce that would flow through the tube of the buccatini.

I decided I had to make do with what was in my cupboard to create a dish because I was not going out in the snowy cold weather we were having on that lovely October day! Seriously, I really hate seeing snow before December. Grumpy is a lot like me when it comes to pasta sauce - and he wants his full of beef if he has it in a tomato based one...so he wasn't extremely excited about the dinner, however, he did eat it and say it was good. I guess that's good enough of an endorsement from him!

This will be my submission for Presto Pasta Nights. This week Ruth of Once upon a Feast is hosting. For the guidelines on participating, please check out the PPN website! I hope to see you there :)

Chicken Tenders in Garlic Tomato Sauce with Buccatini

Heat olive oil in large frying pan. Place chicken tenders in hot oil and season with pepper. Cook about 4 minutes on each side over medium heat. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Leave oil from cooking chicken in pan. Add garlic and stir fry for a minute. Add chopped parsley and stir-fry another 30 seconds. Add Tomatoes, vegetable broth, water, and chicken bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Place chicken back in pan. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Remove cover, remove chicken and set aside. Add tomato paste and simmer 5 minutes uncovered. This will reduce the liquid and thicken it.

While chicken is cooking, cook buccatini according to package directions. Drain, add about 1 teaspoon oil to hot pasta and set aside.

When sauce is reduced and thickened, toss with buccatini. Top with chicken and more fresh chopped parsley and serve!