Saturday, January 16, 2010

Back in December I was unexpectedly asked by Love My Philly blog if I would be interested in testing their Creamy Tomato-Basil Pasta w/Chicken recipe. As I am new to food blogging I was very surprised and flattered to be asked and excited about participating in this. The experience was invaluable to me in my quest to improve on my cooking skills.

I found this recipe very easy to make and easy to adapt if necessary. However, I must say that the next time I make this recipe I will prep my ingredients ahead of time to make it more convenient and time saving. I also used chicken tenders instead of chicken breast as in the recipe. If you follow the directions below you should breeze right through this recipe with no problems.

* Recipe and directions provided by Love My Philly blog.
* Photos by Marisa Lyn for All in Good Food blog

Prep: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients
3 cups penne pasta, uncooked
¼ cup KRAFT sun-dried tomato dressing, divided
4 small boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
1 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
½ tsp. each garlic powder & black pepper
4 oz (1/2 package) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
2 cups grape tomatoes
½ cup KRAFT shredded parmesan cheese
8 fresh basil leaves, cut into strips

Directions

1. Cook pasta as directed on package.

2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp. dressing in large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken, cover. Cook 5 to 6 minutes on each side or until done (165º F). Remove chicken from skillet, cover to keep warm. Carefully wipe out skillet with paper towel.

3. Add remaining dressing, broth, and seasonings to skillet; cook 3 to 4 min. or until heated through.

4. Add Neufchatel; cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until Neufchatel is melted. Stir in tomatoes, cook 3 min.
5. Drain pasta. Add to ingredients in skillet with Parmesan and basil, mix well.



6. Serve topped with chicken.


I want to again thank Philadelphia Cream Cheese who reached out to me to participate. They were gracious enough to provide me with coupons and a cookbook for my participation. I know that others also participated and I can’t wait to see how the recipe came out for them.

I hope you will try this recipe for yourself. By the way this dish is great the second time around.
So… Itadaki masu.

Writers Note: I have to say that after writing this blog I realized that instead of using 4oz of the Neufchatel I used 8oz (the full package). So my sauce was creamier than it should be. This mistake was unintentional but it did not hamper the taste of the dish. It was still delicious.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, does that look awesome! I say the more cream cheese the better! :)

Marisa Lyn said...

Susan, thanks I'm glad you liked it. You know what I found no problem with the extra cream cheese either. Tee Hee.

Lia Chen said...

I love creamy pasta ... your cooking looks so mouthwatering :)

Marisa Lyn said...

Lia, thanks I had fun doing this recipe. It turned out surprisingly well.

Whats Cookin Italian Style Cuisine said...

Going to try this today it justs looks so rich and delicious my boys will love it!

Marisa Lyn said...

Thanks Claudia, It turned out better than I expected.