Chicken and Asparagus Pasta

How to cook moist chicken breasts

The key to any successful meal starts with properly cooked meat. No one likes dry chicken and it isn't that difficult to produce a moist chicken breast with just a little attention. Start with a medium high heated pan to get a nice brown sear on both sides then lower the heat to low to finish cooking. Once the center of yhe sides is no longer visibly oink yuou are getting close. If you slice the chicken prematurely you'll lose all of the juices but an easy way to check for doneness is just to pierce it with a fork. If your fork goes through easily it is no longer rare in the center. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving to allow to finish cooking and to seal in the juices. Also by cooking on low heat you minimize the risknof over cooking and drying out your meat. So when you are cooking meats you can't eat raw, like chicken, start with high heat to get some color then turn it down to keep in those juices!

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bunch asparagus
1 red bell pepper
1 cup chicken stock
4oz fusilli pasta
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan cheese

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown on both sides for about 8 minutes per side. Chop the asparagus and bell pepper into bite sized pieces and add to the skillet with the stock. Cook on low heat until the vegetables are tender, the chicken is cooked through and the broth is cooked down.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water until al dente.

Serve the chicken and vegetables over the pasta and top with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Goat Cheese, Spinach and Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Roulade

The weeknight dinner is often tough.  It requires planning your meals ahead of time so that you have all of the groceries in house and getting home from work early enough and with enough energy to actually force yourself to cook.  It is not always an easy feat to accomplish this and make something that actually looks like you put effort into it.  This is where the chicken roulade comes in.  Baked chicken breast sounds boring, but chicken stuffed with cheese and vegetables sounds much more interesting.  The best part about this is you can take a weeknight where you have minimal groceries in the house, and throw together what you have to make an interesting dish.  Consider broccoli and cream cheese, ham and brie, bacon and just about anything. You can turn a simple boring chicken breast into what looks like a complicated meal with interest with minimal effort.

Goat Cheese, Spinach, Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Roulade
Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
1 cup spinach, roughly torn
6 pieces sun dried tomato, sliced
2 tbs goat cheese
Salt
Pepper

Heat the oven to 450 ºF.
Lay the chicken breasts, one at a time, in between two sheets of wax paper. Beat until about 1/4” thick.  Try not to tear the chicken while beating.  Divide the spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and goat cheese among the chicken breasts and place on the wide side of the breast.  Roll the chicken tightly over the filling towards you, tucking in the filling as you go.  Place the rolled chicken breasts with the seam down on a broiler pan to keep them from unrolling.  Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
Bake for 25 minutes.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Why use a broiler pan?
The broiler pan is an underutilized kitchen utensil but now that people are more health conscience it really should be something that gets brought out regularly. By cooking meats on the broiler pan all of the fats just drain right out and away from the food. If you cook meats at a high temperature and allow them to rest there is absolutely no reason to be concerned with dry meats.