Creamy Tuscan Chicken Penne Pasta – Easy Weeknight Dinner

• Creamy Tuscan Chicken Penne Pasta – Easy Weeknight Dinner

You need to add this Tuscan Chicken Penne to your weekly pasta night menu. It’s a creamy pan sauce filled with sun dried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms and goes prefect with the chicken and pasta. This is a delicious base sauce to add any shape pasta to, it doesn’t have to be penne, use what you have on hand.

My recipes and the way I cook is to use what  I have on hand, or what is on sale and the freshest seasonal  ingredients.  This meal came about because on a shopping trip I bought whole, skinless. boneless chicken breast, they were on sale.

I like to cut them into different shapes to use in different recipes. For this penne pasta I cut the chicken into strips.

The rest I cut into fillets for grilling or baking, lay it flat in baggies and freeze it.

It’s great when all you have to do is take the chicken out of the freezer and it’s pan ready for your recipe, for those busy night , when commitments are long and time is short.

This quick dinner can be on your table in about thirty minutes and has few ingredients so you don’t have to go to the store as often, because you forgot something, and leaving with more than you came for, plus a little extra frustration you didn’t have to pay for in this crazy times.

Things to know about this creamy chicken penne recipe

In this Tuscan Chicken Penne recipe, I use one of my favorite tricks—pasta water! I do this in about 75% of my recipes because pasta water is pure magic when it comes to finishing sauces.

Before adding the pasta to your pan, ladle in about 1 cup of the starchy, salty cooking water. It not only adds flavor but also helps bind the sauce and pasta together while naturally thickening the sauce.

Don’t forget to save the pasta water before you drain it—this is one of the easiest steps to overlook! I like to save extra just in case I want to adjust the sauce’s consistency.

Need to thicken your pan sauce a bit more? Try this trick: coat a pat or two of butter in flour and drop it into the sauce. Let it simmer for at least 5 minutes to cook out any raw flour taste.

This Tuscan-style sauce is a restaurant-quality base you can customize any way you like. It’s full of flavor and guaranteed to be a hit with your family. If you like family friendly pasta meals that come together quick and taste delicious try my tomato piccata shrimp bucatini.

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you—leave a comment or tag me on Instagram so I can see your delicious creations. That’s truly my favorite part!