This quick and easy pasta dish is great for a week night dinner and reheats well so that you have lunch the next day. It’s packed full of spinach so makes you feel at least a little healthier eating a bowl full of pasta coated in a cream sauce. This meal used to be one of my go to dinners in college and is one of the first meals I just kind of threw together myself without a recipe. This version is great as is, but you could always mix it up by adding in some additional veggies.
Chicken Florentine Pasta
Quick pasta dish with a simple cream sauce, lots of spinach and pan fried chicken.
Ingredients
- 1/2 large box bow tie pasta
- 3 Tbsp flour
- salt and pepper
- 3 chicken breast tenders
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cream
- 3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 5 cups spinach
Instructions
- Place 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place 2 Tbsp of flour on a small plate and then coat each piece of chicken completely in flour. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Cook the chicken in the olive oil for 8-10 minutes per side until golden brown. Be sure to also flip on the sides so that the entire outside gets browned. Remove chicken from pan and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
- Cook pasta according to package for al dente.
- Clean out the skillet with a paper towel and then put back on medium heat. Pour 1 Tbsp olive oil into the pan. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute until golden in color and fragrant. Add 1 Tbsp of flour and cook until flour is absorbed into the oil.
- Slowly add the milk a little at a time and whisk frequently to combine with the flour. Add in cream and continue cooking just until sauce starts to thicken. Add in Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is fully melted. Add pasta to the sauce and stir until evenly coated.
- Add the 5 cups of spinach to the pasta. You will probably have to do this in small portions where you add some and stir until it starts to get wilted. Once you can fit all the spinach in the pan cover with a lid and keep over medium heat for 5 minutes to fully cook the spinach. Remove lid and stir so that spinach is evenly distributed throughout the pasta
- Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Dish up pasta into a bowl and then top with 1 of the sliced chicken breasts and a little extra parmesan cheese.
