Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Balsamic Chicken Pasta & Summer Salad with Grilled Chicken

Have been a little busy as of late, so there hasn't been much cooking. However, I did manage to throw 2 dishes together in the past week. 

One was a simple pasta dish with balsamic marinated chicken, onions, garlic, carrots, and tomato. I was in a hurry, so I only marinated the chicken for about 15 minutes in a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and basil. While I was waiting for the chicken to marinate I boiled the water and made the pasta. I drained and set this aside when it was finished.
On medium heat, with a little bit of olive oil in a pan, I sautéed the onions, garlic and carrots until tender and cooked through. In a separate pan, on medium-high heat, I cooked the chicken. I was using relatively thin chicken cutlet so it really only took 2-3 minutes on each side. 
Once the vegetable mixture was ready, I added a tab of butter, dumped the pasta in the pan, and mixed everything together. At this point I also tossed in the diced tomatoes I had. 
Slice the chicken and toss in the pan to warm up before plating.

The other was a summery salad. Grilled chicken on top of a bed arugula, tomatoes, strawberries, sautéed zucchini, and walnuts with a light drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. I seasoned the chicken with some salt and pepper, and cooked it for 2-3 minutes on each side in a pan with olive oil on medium-high heat. I also cut the zucchini into manageable bite-sized pieces, tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, and let them soften up in a pan on medium heat. Once everything was cooked, I basically just threw the rest of the salad together. Quick and easy!





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