My husband LOOOOVES his carbs. Luckily I was able to sneak in a few healthy components into this Creamy Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta. I guess I kept the ratio of veggies to carbs to his liking as he just gobbled it all up. In my opinion, this creamy cheese pasta with broccoli, bacon and chicken has all the elements of the perfect pasta dish. Pasta. Veggies. Chicken (for protein) and the food in it’s own food category: bacon.
I have yet to meet a white pasta sauce I don’t like and this creamy white sauce, flavoured with garlic, is no exception. I also loved that I could prep this meal the night before using leftovers. I pre-cooked the bacon, steamed the broccoli and cooked a few extra chicken breasts with my supper. I guess if I had really planned, I could have also cooked the pasta for this Creamy Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta and had everything completely ready to go. With all the main ingredients ready to go, assembling this dish the night we planned to eat it was easy to do. This left me with plenty of extra time to do other things, like, oh, bing watch Departures on Netflix.
On a totally unrelated, non-food topic… Have you heard of the TV show Departures?? I am addicted. If you love to travel, or want to be bit by the travel bug, let me introduce you to my latest vice: watching Departures on Netflix. Departures is a show put together by these three guys, Scott, Justin and Andre (behind the camera) where they travel the world for a year at a time.
They go to some of the most incredible places (Easter Island, Cambodia, Mongolia), meet fabulous people and do some pretty crazy things (bungee jump and sky dive in New Zealand, ATVing through the dessert). Seriously, there’s sometimes I’m surprised someone (Justin) hasn’t gotten hurt yet. The stories I’m assuming they have off camera must be incredible because the experiences you see on camera blow my mind.
These 3 gentlemen have inspired thousands of people, myself included, to explore this amazing world of ours. Material items have become less important to me and I yearn for more opportunities to travel. That means I need to start saving my money. Lots and lots of money.
I only made it through half an episode of Departures before I had to pull my Creamy Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta out of the oven but thank goodness for the pause button. Happy eating everyone!
Creamy Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless , skinless chicken
- salt & pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoon garlic , minced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 + ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese , divided
- 8 oz bow tie pasta (or other bite size pasta)
- 2 cups broccoli , bite size & steamed, tender crisp
- 7 stripes cooked bacon , crumbled
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 350 F.
-
Precook your chicken as full breasts in the oven. You can also use 2 cups of leftover rotisserie chicken if you wish.
-
Steam your broccoli until tender crisp and set aside. You don’t want to over cook your broccoli or they will fall apart when you stir them into your pasta dish.
-
Cook your bacon and chop into small bite size pieces. Drain on a paper towel and set aside.
-
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan and get a large pot of water boiling to cook the pasta. Cook your pasta as per instructions on package.
-
In the frying pan, add your garlic for about 30 seconds until it just becomes fragrant. Pour in your heavy cream and stir. Heat the cream until it just starts to boil. Stir in the salt, pepper and mozzarella cheese. Stir to combine until the cheese is melted into the sauce. Leave on a low heat while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links. The price you pay does NOT change, but I do earn a small commission for your purchase. Thanks in advance for supporting 365 Days of Easy Recipes!
