a pasta meal with chicken and pesto that can be easily heated to your desired level of heat. It’s one of my faves and was inspired by a dish I had in a Santa Monica restaurant. If preferred, top the dish with more grated Parmesan. It tastes great when creamy goat cheese is added at the very end as an alternative.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package uncooked farfalle (bow tie) pasta
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon hot chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch pieces
- 6 tablespoons prepared basil pesto
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place farfalle pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Mix in the chile paste and chicken. Cook and stir chicken 10 minutes, or until evenly browned and juices run clear.
- Toss the cooked farfalle, pesto, Parmesan cheese, and cilantro into the skillet, and continue cooking just until heated through.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 422 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 46 g |
| Cholesterol | 43 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 215 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
While everyone except the hubs loves it, my pickiest son LOVES it. He’s often on the road for work and living in hotels during storms. He requests this so he can reheat it for a filling and delicious meal. Actually, he just requested that I make a batch that he can reheat next week. We do add peas or spinach or something green to give it a little color.
I love, love, love this recipe but I always used spicy chicken sausage instead of just plain chicken and always added inch pieces of asparagus. Now that I am vegan – I substitute mushrooms for the chicken.
Yummy! It’s was a hit with the whole family. Used some shredded rotisserie chicken. Super easy and good.
Super easy to make and very tasty. I doubled the chili paste though for extra heat.
Delicious
Delicious, especially with your garden ingredients! We like to kick it up with extra chili paste
This turned out great! I used shrimp instead of chicken and added in some zucchini, spinach, garlic, and roasted red peppers.
NO CHANGES. Delicious, with just the right kick of spice. Not too much, not too little. Pesto gives the pasta a great flavor and the chicken rounds it out with tasty morsels of good, lean protein.
I would add sun dried tomatoes next time and cut the cilantro in 1/2. It was magnificent.
Amazing! Love the addition of chili paste to the pesto. Just used whatever pasta I had on hand and left out the chicken because it was for “Meatless Monday” but can’t wait to add chicken and/or veggies to it next time!
Super easy and very delicious!
This is a great base recipe. I tend to make changes to almost every recipe and did the same with this one. When I was sauteing the chicken, I added minced garlic, diced shallots, sliced zucchini, some frozen spinach and artichoke hearts and a few diced grape tomatoes for color. I had a little bit of half and half that I needed to use up, so I also threw that in when I tossed the pasta with the parmesan cheese. It was VERY flavorful and there was enough sauce to keep the pasta from being too dry. I will be making this again!
I’ve made this at least 10 times now. Quick and easy – love it. Siracha is a good substitute for the chili paste if you can’t find it.
Loved it!!
I could not find sambal oelek, so used green Thai Chili Paster instead. Fairly simple dish to make and the kids liked it….but guess I was hoping for a little for kick. Will try to find sambal oelek for next time.
Added chopped baby spinach and kale and used homemade pesto. Everyone loved it!
All three of my kids & I LOVED this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except I think I added more cheese than it called for. I know we will be making this often in the future. It was very easy to make and was delicious! I can’t wait to have some of the leftovers tomorrow.
This turned out great. Used 1 1/2 tablespoons of the chili paste for a little added spice, and a little chopped garlic with the chicken while cooking. Sprinkled with a little shredded Parmesan when fully cooked. Delicious
Soo delicious! The flavors of the chili paste and pesto really come together We love garlic so I added crushed garlic when I cooked the chicken and it was great! If you can find the Sambal Oelek it is worth it!
Delicious! I never would have thought of combining sambal and pesto, but it works. I did add some pasta water and stirred in a little goat cheese at the end. I will definitely make this again.
Added juice of small lemon and it was pretty good