Last night’s chicken was so good, I wanted to repurpose it for tonight’s dinner. I chose to make a pasta sauce out of what was left in the jars of marinated artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. I poured the two jars into a large skillet, adding a tablespoon of minced garlic (from a jar – I wanted tonight’s dinner to be quick to prepare), the zest of one and a half lemons, the juice of one and a half lemons, and a half teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper.

I then sliced my leftover chicken and cut the slices in half. I added those to the pan and cooked everything together for about 20 minutes, while my noodles cooked. For my noodles, I chose whole wheat penne pasta. If you remember from last night’s blog post, I stuffed the chicken with the artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and Boursin cheese. As the chicken cooked in the skillet, some of the cheese seeped out a bit while cooking, which flavored my pasta sauce in just the right way.

Before draining my pasta, I saved about a cup of pasta water that I used to loosen my sauce a tad. You may or may not need to do this.

When I served my pasta, I added a tablespoon of Boursin to the top and it melted a bit onto the hot noodles. I also added a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a bit more zest to the top of my dish.

I actually still have leftovers on this, so Dennis is looking forward to having pasta for lunch tomorrow. This is definitely the dish that keeps on giving.

Ingredients

Leftover chicken from the marinated artichoke, sun-dried tomato and Boursin stuffed chicken breast meal

1/2 jar of marinated artichokes, including liquid

1/2 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, including liquid

1 tablespoon Boursin cheese (per serving)

8 ounces whole wheat penne pasta

1 tablespoon minced, refrigerated garlic

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus a pinch for the pasta water

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 lemons, juice and zest (reserve 1/2 of one lemon to use when plating the pasta and reserve a few pinches of zest for toping your pasta)

Directions

1. Boil water for noodles.
2. In large skillet, pour the artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes. Add salt and pepper, garlic, the zest and juice of 1-1/2 lemons, stir and cook for 10-15 minutes.
3. Cook noodles per package directions.
4. Cut leftover chicken into strips and then in half. Add to pan. Heat together with sauce while noodles cook.
5. Serve over pasta, adding a tablespoon of Boursin, a squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of lemon zest before serving.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris