Chicken Florentine Pasta

I made this for a late lunch Saturday, and it absolutely completed me. It also absolutely completed my parents, whose love of pasta is surpassed only by that of their son, otherwise known as me.

 Let’s just move on to the pasta, and I would like to point out that for the purposes of this post and the rest of the cooking posts I’ll post this week, when I cooked on Saturday I decided to—brace yourself—move my dining table to another window in order to avail myself of some different light than I’m used to using. So if the photos look a little different, furniture rearranging is the reason. If you’re a weirdo like me and like to take photos of the food you cook and eat, try moving to a totally different spot sometime!

If you’re not and if you don’t, just skip forward to the “make this pasta dish as soon as humanly possible’ part.

In fact, let’s just do that right now.
INGREDIENTS YOU NEED EQUIPMENT YOU NEED

penne pasta pot (or any large pot for boiling pasta)
boneless, skinless chicken breasts collander
salt and pepper knife
butter large skillet
olive oil cooking spoon or tongs
garlic vegetable peeler
white wine
low-sodium chicken broth
baby spinach
grape tomatoes
Parmesan
HOW TO MAKE IT

Cut up the chicken into chunks—large or small, depending on your preference. Or depending on your family’s preference. Or your Orkin man’s preference. Depends on who you’re cooking for.

Salt and pepper the chicken…
Throw the chicken chunks into a large skillet with butter and olive oil over really high heat.

Spread it into a single layer and let it sit for a minute or two, undisturbed, while it gets nice and brown on one side.
Turn the chicken to the other side and keep cooking it until it’s really brown and done in the middle.
Remove the chicken to a plate and set it aside for a bit.
Turn down the heat to medium, then throw in the garlic and stir it around quickly to keep it from burning.
Then pour in white wine…

And chicken broth.

(Note: If you don’t use alcohol in your cooking, you can use double the amount of broth and just leave out the wine altogether.)


Then stir it all around, scraping the bottom of the pan. Then just let the liquid cook and bubble up for a good 3-4 minutes. You want the liquid to reduce by at least half and get nice and rich…without disappearing! This is what’s going to ultimately coat and moisten the pasta, so don’t let it go completely away. (Incidentally, if that happens just splash in a little more broth as needed. Amen.)


While the sauce is reducing, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the halved grape tomatoes. And why are grape tomatoes so darn delicious? They complete me.

Now comes the fun part! When the liquid’s nice and reduced, turn off the heat and throw in the spinach… The tomatoes
The chicken (and any juice that might be on the plate)…
And the cooked, drained pasta.
Immediately begin tossing the pasta—the spinach will wilt as you do, and this is what I love about this pasta: you don’t even have to cook the spinach and tomatoes. They just heat up/wilt as you toss them with the hot pasta.

Poifect!

And…yum. My soul rejoices.