Pasta and Chicken With Tomato Pesto

Photo: flickr user Gudlyf

Ingredients

1 cup defatted reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, dry-packed quartered

12 ounces skinless boneless chicken breast halves

8 ounces radiatore or short fusilli

1/2 cup Italian parsley loosely packed

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme packed

2 lrg garlic cloves

1 shallot quartered

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 kalamata olives pitted and sliced

Fresh thyme sprigs for garnish

Preparation

Preliminaries: Preheated broiler or grill; pasta pot of boiling water. The following steps occur simultaneously.

REHYDRATE TOMATOES: In a small saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over high heat. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and remove the pan from the heat; let stand for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes soften.

GRILL/BROIL CHICKEN: Cook chicken breasts until no longer pink. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to cool. When cool, cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

PASTA: Add pasta to boiling water, return to boil and cook until tender.

Drain the pasta in a colander and transfer to a large bowl for mixing.

PESTO: Place parsley, vinegar, thyme, garlic, shallots and black pepper in a food processor. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and broth, process until finely chopped.

ASSEMBLE: Combine pasta (in the bowl) with pesto. Add the cut chicken and rough-cut olives; toss to combine. Garnish with tips of fresh thyme sprigs. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Description: "Broiled chicken and radiatore with balsamic-dried tomato pesto, garnished with kalamata olives and fresh thyme." Start to Finish Time:"0:40"

NOTES : Cut one-inch pieces from the tops of fresh thyme sprigs and reserve for garnish. Optional: use your choice of an Italian dry-rub or wine-vinegar marinade on the chicken breasts prior to broiling/grilling.

Here you go: another dish with olives. This one has a sun-dried pesto. The fat content is low enough to add feta.

Durkee makes a good marinade for Chicken: peppery and herbal, moisten with vinegar and water or juice. Or use as a dry-rub.

We had this for dinner and loved it. Slurped it. I had leftover grilled chicken from yesterday and I used about 3 ounces for two people. Added 1 floret head of broccoli. doubled the balsamic and garlic. Other wise we halved the recipe. Very good. I think it would go well with a crumbled Greek cheese. It took about 20 minutes total to get water up to a boil etc.