Creamy chicken and spinach pasta in 30 minutes
A dinner that has become a weeknight classic in many Polish homes: pasta with chicken fried golden, fresh spinach, garlic and cream, with parmesan and lemon at the end. One pan, one pot, half an hour. The secret of a creamy rather than heavy sauce is a ladle of the pasta cooking water: its starch binds the cream and cheese into a silky sauce.
Your own work in that: 18 min.
- Chicken 10 min
- Pasta cooking 12 min
- Sauce and tossing 8 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneFry the chicken
Put a large pot of water on for the pasta. Cut the breast into 2 cm cubes, pat dry, salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over high heat and fry the chicken 5–6 minutes, without stirring too often, until golden on all sides. Move to a plate; don't wash the pan.
Ingredients: 500 g chicken breast · 2 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs onion · 3 cloves garlic · 300 g fresh spinach · 250 ml whipping cream (30%) · 50 g parmesan · ½ pcs lemon · 1 pinch nutmeg · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipDry chicken in a hot pan browns; wet chicken stews in its juice and stays grey. The browned bits on the pan bottom are the flavour of the sauce, not dirt.
High heat, golden chicken, the pan staysCook the pasta
Add the pasta to boiling, well-salted water and cook a minute less than the packet says. Before draining, save a cup of the cooking water. It finishes in the sauce, which you make while the pasta cooks.
Ingredients: 400 g penne or tagliatelle · 1 tbsp salt
A minute less, a cup of water savedSoften the onion and garlic
In the same pan, over medium heat, soften the finely diced onion 3 minutes, add the sliced garlic and fry a minute, scraping the browned bits off the bottom with a spoon.
Onion, garlic, the fond goes into the sauceSpinach and cream
Add the spinach in batches; it wilts to a handful in 2 minutes. Pour in the cream, add the nutmeg, salt and pepper, bring to the boil and cook 2 minutes, until slightly thickened. Add the chicken with its juices from the plate.
TipSqueeze frozen spinach thoroughly, or the sauce will be watery and greenish.
Spinach wilting, cream, chicken back inToss with the pasta
Tip the drained pasta into the pan, add the parmesan and half a cup of the cooking water. Toss over low heat 1–2 minutes, until the sauce coats every piece and turns creamy. Too thick? Another splash of water. Off the heat, add the lemon zest and juice.
Pasta water makes a silky sauceServe
At once, with extra parmesan and pepper. A cream sauce thickens as it cools; reheat with a little milk or water.
Parmesan, pepper, lemon
Before you start
With sun-dried tomatoes
6 sun-dried tomatoes from oil in strips added with the spinach: a sweet-sour accent and a touch of colour.
Lighter
18 % cream, or half cream and half stock: a thinner sauce, fewer calories, more pasta water to bind it.
The sauce split
Low-fat cream, or boiled hard with the lemon in. Use whipping cream (30%) and add the lemon off the heat.
