Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta

This Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta is a quick and delicious meal for the busy weeknights ahead.  You can use either fresh chicken and real lemons or precooked chicken and bottled lemon juice to make this dish.  It is delicious either way!

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Ingredients:

• 12 oz dried pasta
• 2 chicken breasts, sliced into small strips (uncooked or precooked)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dried Basil
• 1 lemon, juiced (or if you use bottled lemon juice, use whatever is equivalent to 1 lemon.  I originally recommended 1/2 cup, but different lemon juices may be more concentrated...)
• 1 cup of half n half or heavy cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus a bit more to top the dish after cooking
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup of reserved pasta cooking liquid
• 1 tsp of cornstarch (if needed)

Instructions:

1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water.  When draining the pasta, reserve about a cup of the pasta cooking liquid.  Keep pasta warm. (To keep the pasta from sticking together after cooking, you can mix in about 1 tsp of olive oil.)
2. While the pasta is cooking, season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium high and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, chicken, garlic and red pepper flakes to a saute pan with. Cook until chicken is golden and completely cooked. (If using precooked chicken, saute the garlic and red pepper about 3 minutes before adding the chicken, then cook a minute or to longer until the chicken is thoroughly coated and hot.)
3. Add about 1/2 cup of pasta cooking liquid, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and cream to the chicken mixture.  Cook over medium heat until the sauce has thickened.  If you want a little more cream sauce, add the rest of the reserved pasta cooking liquid.  (If you want your cream sauce thicker, add a tsp of corn starch to 2 tablespoons of water and mix into the sauce.  Continue cooking until desired thickness is achieved.)
4. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and turn heat off.  Mix everything together until pasta is thoroughly coated.  Top with dried basil, cracked fresh pepper and additional Parmesan cheese.

Serve and Enjoy!

The addition of peas, broccoli or asparagus would be a fabulous complement to this dish.  (I try to keep the veggies on the side instead of in mixed in, because veggies on the side tends to reduce the amount of whining from a certain little boy...)

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