Chipotle Chicken Pasta

I'm obsessed. Obsessed I tell you. Chipotles in adobo are just so good. If you can get past how they look you just fall in love with their rich, smokey, barbecue-like flavor. Sigh. So good. And unless you are first stumbling upon my blog for the first time you are aware that I could eat pasta daily and have to force myself not to. So when an opportunity to combine chipotles with pasta appeared, I needed to seize the moment. 


This is a tasty dinner. It came together so quickly and was really a nice twist on pasta. I like that it had a more Mexican flair to it rather than a traditional Italian meal. Plus the spice was delicious. I halved the recipe but still used a whole chipotle, and next time if I were to make this again I would have used 2 for half the recipe, but I'm nuts like that. You really have to decide how much heat you can handle. It was a creamy, delicious, pasta meal and I would certainly make it again.

Just a tip- chipotles in adobo freeze beautifully. I put a couple in a Ziploc with a tsp. or two of the sauce and freeze them. Then I just pull our the amount of peppers I need for a meal. It helps to avoid wasting the peppers and it allows you to make tons of delicious meals!


Source: Adapted from Homemade by Holman


Ingredients:

2-3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)

1/4 cup lime juice

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

1 tsp ancho chili powder

1 tsp salt

2 T olive oil

1 lb farfalle pasta

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

1 chipotle pepper + 1 T of adobo sauce, minced

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup light cream

Directions:

1- Cut chicken breasts and cut into bite-size pieces.  Combine lime juice, 1/2 of minced garlic, 1/2 of cilantro, chili powder, and salt and mix together.  Pour over chicken to coat and marinate chicken about 30 minutes. 

2- Heat a large pot of water to boiling.  Add generous amount of salt and add pasta.  Cook according to package directions until al dente.  Drain and set aside.  

3-Meanwhile, add olive oil to large saute pan and heat over medium heat.  Add chicken, bell peppers, onions and remaining garlic and cook about 6-8 minutes until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are softened.  

4- Add chicken broth and chipotle pepper and adobo sauce and cook until stock is reduced by about 1/3.

5-  Reduce heat to low and add cream.  Stir to combine and return pasta to sauce pan and toss to evenly coat with sauce.  Cook about 5 minutes and top with remaining cilantro and serve.