Dank Wife Pasta II

My best friend Jennifer and I met while working at Lucci’s, an Italian deli. When I literally met Jennifer she was reeling from throwing a knife at someone who worked in the take-out section with her. She was wearing a blue t-shirt that looked like it had bird crap on it and said “I hate seagulls.” Needless to say, we became fast friends and I refer to her as my wife. 

One of the weird things about my wife is that she has a lot of allergies and as a consequence, when I met her, she didn’t have as well developed a pallet as I did. I mean the girl only ate quesadillas, chicken fettucini alfredo, patty melts, grilled cheese sandwiches and the occasional turkey sandwich. She didn’t (doesn’t ?) even like mashed potatoes! Now she knows more about food then I do (she’ll be making appearances here soon enough).

Bringing me to our next recipe. When we worked at Lucci’s, Jennifer started making this pasta for us that was delicious! I used to beg her to make it (I still do) and she would always politely make it AGAIN. But I knew she didn’t like it as much as I did.

One day I was living in Berkeley or LA (or where ever was far enough away) so I had to make the recipe for myself. I ended up messing it up and the result ended up being HER favorite pasta.

Both pasta’s are called Dank Wife Pasta and, before now, the only way to tell the difference between them was who was asking for it. If I’m asking, I mean her pasta, if she’s asking, she means mine. Now we’ve got one and two. I’ll let her share her’s later… But here’s mine for now. Enjoy!

Dank Wife Pasta II

Makes 2 - 3 Servings
Prep Time: ½ hour
Total Time: 50 minutes
Total Estimated Cost: $7


Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 packet Grill Mates Dry Marinade: HERB (It’s in the soup section, see package for directions)
-Vinegar (see marinade packet)
-Oil (see marinade packet)
-Water (see marinade packet)
½ package of pasta of choice (I like penne or spirals)
Salt & Pepper
Parmesan Cheese

Preparation:

In a large ziploc bag make marinade according to package instructions. Place chicken in the bag in the marinade. Zip close and coat chicken. Let marinate at least ½ an hour. If possible marinate over night.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken in a glass baking dish with all of the marinade from the ziploc bag. Bake chicken for 12 minutes or until the middle of the thickest part of the chicken breast is no longer pink. Don’t worry about destroying the chicken by cutting into it - you’ll be cubing it in a minute anyway.

In the mean time, set a large pot of water to boil. Salt and oil the water to keep from boiling over. When the water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta. Cook until slightly undercooked. Drain. DO NOT RINSE. Add the pasta back into the pot.

Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes. I do this right in the pan it’s cooked in, carefully. Put the chicken into the pot with the pasta and pour the marinade left over in the cooking pan over the pasta.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

You can add grated or shredded Parmesan if you like.

Serve with bread or a side salad.

Enjoy!