1 Box Rigatoni Pasta (or any pasta that a sauce can “grab” onto)
3-4 Chicken Breasts
1 Bundle Asparagus
1 Package Mushrooms
1 Sweet Onion
3-5 Cloves Garlic
3-4 Strips Smoked Bacon
Parmesan Cheese (get a block of cheese and grate it fresh)
1 Jar Marinara Sauce
Heavy Whipping Cream
Chicken (or Veggie) Stock
Coarse Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Salt and start boiling the water for the pasta. Once it is ready, toss in the pasta.
Pre-heat a wok on high heat.
Cut the bacon into approx 1″ long strips. Add to the hot wok.
Prep the veggies. Cut the onion up into medium sized pieces. Snap the ends off of the asparagus and cut into 3rds. Finely chop the garlic. Chop the mushrooms (yeah, not quite a veggie, but close enough).
Pound the chicken breast. Not paper thin but about to the same thickness as the tail of the breast starts out at.
Watch so the bacon doesn’t become over done. You want it nice and crisped up, but not burnt. Keep it moving a little, but not so much that you don’t get a nice char on the bottom of the pan. You’ll want that flavor.
Pre-heat a cast iron skillet with some olive oil in it. You’ll let this heat up until the oil just starts to smoke.
Once your bacon is where you like it, add the onions and mushrooms (you may have to drain some bacon fat first. Your call). Add a little salt and some pepper.
Once the onions start to get translucent, it’s time to get the goodness (burnt on bacon) off of the wok. Add some chicken stock (Maybe a 1/4 cup, but eyeball the amount. Add enough to get the job done). Scrape up all of the burnt on goodness from the wok. Toss in the garlic and asparagus. You’ll keep this on high heat until the asparagus is done. If all of the chicken stock cooks off, add just enough to keep everything from burning back onto the wok.
Pour about 1/2 a jar (spaghetti sauce sized jar) into a pan and start to heat. You just want to get it hot, not cook it down.
When the oil starts to smoke, salt and pepper both sides of the chicken and add it to the skillet. Then leave it alone! Cook it on high. You want it to get nice and brown. The goal is to flip the chicken twice. Brown the first side, flip, brown the second side, flip, let the breast finish cooking and pull it from the pan.
When the pasta is fully cooked, strain it through a colander, and set it aside.
Once the veggies are done, add some heavy cream. This will be your sauce and you’ll need enough to cover the pasta, so be generous. Add some chicken stock, then let that mixture simmer, just enough to get it hot. Then toss in the pasta. Stir the pasta in so that it is covered in the sauce. Leave the heat on low to med, so that the whole mixture comes up to temp and the sauce reduces down ever so slightly.
Grate some parmesan into a bowl.
Once the chicken is done, pull it from the pan, then add a little chicken stock to the pan. Again, you want enough to get all of the baked on goodness off. Scrape the skillet and add that to the pasta / sauce mixture in the wok, then mix it all together. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon a portion of the pasta / sauce mixture into a bowl (a nice, big bowl). Cut about 1/2 of one of the chicken breasts into strips and place on top of the pasta. Top that with marinara and then some parmesan. Enjoy.
