pasta with chicken, bacon & roasted brussels

A hearty pasta dish is always welcome in our family. As hearty as red sauce is, we are often inspired to try something different to keep things interesting. We love most anything with caramelized brussels and protein, so our pasta with with chicken, bacon, and roasted brussels was born. We chose to pair the meat and veggies with calamarata pasta. We discovered this pasta and loved the minute we tried it. DeCecco makes a great one. I have linked it here. Of course, you certainly can substitute any pasta for the calamarata pasta in this recipe. If you are looking for a lighter meal, go for angel hair! There are a few layers of cooking this dish, but the great thing about this recipe is that you can cook most of it during the day, and store everything in your refrigerator. When you are ready to eat, make the sauce, add all of the pre-cooked ingredients and heat through in a large skillet on the stove. We areactually in the best mood when we make this, because we make everything ahead of time and then we clean it all up ahead of time too! So, when we put everything together at dinner time, we have a very delicious meal with very little clean up, which is a win-win. Enjoy!

pasta with chicken, bacon and roasted brussels

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• Author: Salt and Share
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 6-8 servings
• Category: Main Dishes
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• 1 lb bacon, cooked and broken into pieces (see note below about cooking bacon)
• 12 oz calamarata pasta, cooked, reserve 1 cup cooking water
• 4 chicken breasts
• 3 cups brussels
• 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon pepper, divided
• 4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
• 1 leek, finely chopped
• 2 cups half and half

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place chicken in bowl with 2 T olive oil, ½ t salt, ½ t pepper and garlic. Set aside to marinate.
3. While chicken is marinating, toss brussels in 2 T olive oil. Spread on foil lined cookie sheet and bake 15-20 minutes, until crispy.
4. Slice chicken into strips and saute in 2 T olive oil. Set aside.
5. At this point, bacon, pasta, brussels and chicken is cooked. You can refrigerate until serving if desired, just remove from refrigerator 45 minutes prior to serving and make the sauce.
6. To make sauce. Heat 2 T olive oil in deep skillet. Add 2 cloves garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes. Add leeks, cook until wilted. Add half and half, cook until sauce is slightly reduced. Add salt and pepper, mixing well. Add chicken and cooked pasta, and heat thoroughly. Add reserved pasta water if needed to thin sauce and cover skillet. When chicken and pasta are heated through, add ¾ of bacon and heat for 2 minutes. Sprinkle brussels and remaining bacon on top. Cover to heat through. Serve immediately.

Notes

Cooking bacon: the easiest way to cook bacon is to line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut bacon strips in half. Place strips on foil and bake in a 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until crispy.