Chicken Broccoli & Ziti

 

I am always making some healthy version of a chicken broccoli ziti.  Let me tell you right now, if you are looking for low cal or even remotely healthy, you should stop right here.  The only thing healthy about this recipe is that it has broccoli!  It's full of butter, yes, real butter, heavy cream and lots and lots of cheese!  Mmmm, okay, if that doesn't scare you away then prepare to indulge in a delicious restaurant quality chicken, broccoli and ziti.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb chicken tenders, cut into bite size pieces
2 T cornstarch
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/2 C vegetable stock (or chicken)
1/4 C white wine (or you can just add an extra 1/4 C stock if you're out of wine)
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 C freshly grated parmesan or reggiano cheese or a blend

Prepare pasta.  During last 4 minutes of cooking, add broccoli. Drain, reserving 1/2 C of the cooking water.

While pasta is cooking, toss chicken with cornstarch, salt and pepper.
Heat oil and 1 T butter over medium/high heat.  Add chicken.  Brown chicken on all sides, set chicken on plate and set aside.
Return pan back to heat.  Add wine to deglaze pan.  Be sure to scrape all the yummy chicken bits up from the pan while wine is cooking down.  After 4 minutes add garlic.  Cook 2 minutes.  Add stock.  Return chicken back to pan. Cook about 5 minutes until chicken is cooked through.  Add heavy cream and reduce heat to medium/low and cook 5 minutes.  Combine chicken mixture to pasta and broccoli (my skillet isn't big enough so I dump the chicken mix into the large pasta pot).  Add cheese.  Cook on low for about 5 minutes to let everything meld together nicely.  If sauce seems to be too thick add reserved pasta water.  Add remaining 2 T of butter and  mix well before serving.  Serve with additional parmesan/reggiano cheese.