My Easy Breezy Down Home Italian Cooking

My Easy-Breezy Gourmet Pasta Dish

It was getting late and I had to get something together quick and I mean quick for sup! Yes indeedie...I whipped this up and it turned out good. And I mean good. Hubs wants me to make this again. : )

I had 5 half frozen boneless chicken breasts to work with. One was gigantic I will say... We have 6 in our family. I do not like standing over the stove so I use my oven as much as possible. I put the half frozen chicken breasts in a 13 x 9 pan. In fact my Italian grandma's stainless steel pan, no aluminum for Grandma. She lived humbly but had the best in pots and pans...She knew what was important! : )

I drizzled olive oil liberally in the pan before putting the chicken. I grabbed my garlic powder and Tony Chachere's seasoning and sprinkled away.

Baked the chicken til it started to brown at 400. As it browned (around 30 - 45 minutes) I split the breasts in halves and fourths. Brown a bit more.

Then I start artfully to do what I love to do... I dump-dump-dump!

I go into my handy dandy pantry and grab a regular size stewed tomatoes and dump with juice!

I also found the treasure of a can of artichoke hearts. I dump with juice!

Then to top off my delicious pasta gravy I found a regular jar of store-bought pasta sauce.

On that store-bought pasta gravy...(Please don't tell my Grandma...or my Grandpa) They are in Heaven now but they would look at me like I was crazy.) My grandpa would say "ick". ; ) Grandpa had a thick Italian accent and was a sweetheart, he could say "ick" like only Grandpa could...Grandma would say Grandpa is going to throw that store-bought out the winda! (window). Grandpa would never do that but you get the picture... Grandpa was from Sicily and Grandma was from Naples. Grandpa came here when he was 15 in 1915 and Grandma came here as an infant several years before. Grandma grew up in the South and her accent was somewhere between New Orleans and a Southern Belle.

Last but not least, I sprinkle Italian seasonings over it all and pop that masterpiece back in the oven til it bubbles delightfully and the chicken is tender.

In the meantime I simmer up spaghetti.

I saved the day with this, and the pasta gravy in the pan with chicken was ladled over the pasta with Italian cheese on top to everyone's fancy.

Here's your list:

5-6 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 reg. can of stewed tomatoes
1 reg. can of artichoke hearts
1 regular size jar of store-bought (oh how it pains me to type that) pasta gravy, Americani folks say "sauce".

olive oil
garlic powder
Tony Chachere's seasoning
Italian seasoning
Italian cheese, Romano or Parmesan to sprinkle on top
Spaghetti


And yes, you read that correctly...It is Pasta GRAVY. That is what the real Italians call it here. : )
"Yes, I confess it was from a jar!"
The end.


If you think you may like to try this dish I think that's great. If you post this recipe please give credit where credit is due, it's hurtful finding your recipe on another's blog with no credit. As my old pastor once said: It's nice to be nice. : )
6.30.11 Linked to Full Plate Thursday.

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