Creamy Chicken & Asparagus Pasta

We love asparagus, and it's just coming back down to a reasonable price at the grocery store, so we created this dish to give us an excuse to eat some. We hope you enjoy. We did!


Here's what you need:
1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (this was 3 breasts for us)
Kosher salt
Black pepper to taste
1 lb fresh asparagus
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups light cream
Juice of 1 lemon
Spaghetti or linguine


Here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.


Start by spraying a baking dish with cooking spray and place your trimmed chicken inside. Coat with a pinch of Kosher salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper. Be sure to coat both sides of the chicken. The peppery chicken will work really nicely with the pasta later, because we're not adding pepper to the sauce.

Pop the chicken in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. We checked it at 30 minutes and it wasn't yet to temperature, so we let it go another 10. It turned out perfectly.


For the sauce, start a pot of water boiling for your asparagus.


Trim the ends off the asparagus and discard. Slice the asparagus on the diagonal.

Once the water starts boiling, add a healthy dose of salt to the water.

Drop the asparagus in to boil for 3-4 minutes.

While your asparagus is boiling, put another pot of water on to boil for your pasta. Then, mince your garlic.

By now, your asparagus should be finished. Strain and set aside for just a second.


Drop the heat to medium, and melt the butter in the same pot you used to boil the asparagus.

Add the minced garlic.

And, add the asparagus to the pot.

Let that saute for another 3-4 minutes.

Drop your heat to medium-low and slowly add the cream, stirring occasionally to prevent it from burning.

Let the mixture come to a low simmer and thicken up. This should take about 10 minutes. You'll also want to drop your pasta in the salted boiling water at this point.

At the very end, right before you plate, add the lemon juice to the sauce and stir.

Now, if you timed it right, your chicken should be finished at about the same time as your pasta and sauce. Our chicken took 40 minutes at 350 degrees to reach temperature (165 degrees internal temp).

Remove the chicken and place on a cutting board. Using your sharpest knife, slice on the bias into thin strips.

Now, you simply have to build your plate. You can throw the pasta in with the sauce, or pour the sauce over the top. We poured it over and then added the chicken, then topped with a little more sauce.

Enjoy!