Pasta with Chicken and Lemon

This is the second chicken stock-butter emulsion sauce recipe of this collection. See everything I have to say about that here. I actually make this far more frequently as of this writing than I do the other one.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken breast (usually a little over 1 lb)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 12 oz chicken stock
• 2 TBSP butter
• 2 oz parmiggiano
• Salt and pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 12 oz(ish) baby spinach
• 1 box pasta (shells work best, or any other short pasta, but no reason fettuccine or spaghetti wouldn’t also work well)

Directions:

Start by mincing the shallot and garlic and then hold them off to the side, then get to mincing the chicken breast by hand. Cut into cubes, then run your knife over them the way you would mince anything, like garlic, for instance. For some reason I find this technique more successful than using ground chicken. Cooked ground chicken has the consistency of sand – it’s granular, flavorless, and dry. Mincing the chicken by hand keeps it uneven but finely minced nonetheless. It seems able to clump more. Finally, as I mentioned above, I usually make this as a last minute dish and I almost never have ground chicken on hand, but generally do have a frozen chicken breast or two. Soaking in water for about 15 minutes brings it to the perfect, half-frozen consistency for mincing, and I’m off and running.

Start as usual: large pot of water to boil, olive oil in a large skillet. Sear the chicken, breaking up with a spatula. When it is barely cooked through (it will be quick) add the shallots, garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes, and half the lemon juice, and continue to cook, stirring, until the shallot is soft.

Add the chicken stock and deglaze, add salt and pepper, bring to a boil. When the stock has reduced by about half, mount it with the butter and stir vigorously. More on creating this kind of emulsion is found here. Add the cheese when you’re about a minute away from adding the pasta. Add the spinach at the last moment, before you add the pasta. It will be successful if you put the spinach in and dump the pasta on top of it, so that it wilts between the heat of the cooked pasta and the boiling sauce, then incorporates immediately when tossed. Baby spinach wilts almost instantly and doesn’t add much water to the dish – if you are substituting with a heartier green, adjust your actions accordingly.

If you’re adding the pasta straight from the pot you’re probably transferring a good amount of pasta water – if not, make sure you reserve some. After adding the pasta, toss once or twice to combine, then add the remaining lemon juice. Hit it with a little more olive oil if you like, and potentially a little more cheese, then toss again to distribute evenly.

Serve, of course, with more cheese.