Monday’s meals #10 Poached chicken and fusilli pasta with basil pesto,sundried tomatoes and courgettes.

 

This is a firm favourite in our house that we all mop up , it’s pasta which we all know most kids will eat and with the basil pesto and sun-dried tomato ingredients it’s adult enough for everyone around the table to be satisfied.

I think the real trick here is to poach the chicken, the recipe works perfectly well with roast chicken thighs , but for me if you have the time to poach the chicken thighs the meat turns out so juicy and moist and adds to the dish! We don’t always have the time for poaching however so I’d recommend buying oyster thighs for roasting as they are not going to dry up on you.

 

Ingredients

Chicken oyster thighs (generally two each for adult and 1 per child)

Basil pesto ( if you have the time to make your own then great but Supervalu’s own brand basil pesto is fab or choose a low-fat option if watching intake)

sun-dried Tomatoes

Chicken stock pot *2

courgettes *2

Italian Seasoning

Garlic cloves to own taste ( I use 2 cloves)

Fusilli pasta

 

Method

Poach chicken thighs in one chicken stock pot until cooked, or when you see its starting to fall off the bone. This generally takes 1.5 hours. Alternatively roast thighs in oven according to settings for fifty minutes or until the juices run clear.

Cook fusilli pasta in the second chicken stock pot and steam your chopped courgette over the same pot if you have a steamer for several minutes. Alternatively boil the courgette for a few minutes.

In a wok add your chopped garlic, sun dried tomatoes and courgette to the pan and fry for several minutes.. Season with the italian seasoning and add a good portion of your basil pesto to the mixed veg. You can pour some of the pasta stock water into the mix so it doesn’t stick to the wok base and let the veg cook away for a few minutes and take off the heat when cooked through

When the chicken is ready break it up and add to the veg in the wok, adding another spoon of the pesto to the mix and if you feel it needs more liquid add a little more of the pasta stock water to it.

When the pasta is cooked, drain the remaining liquid and add one spoon of pesto to the pasta and serve.

 

I’d love to hear what you think of this dish as it’s really become a weekly addition to our menu now I have perfected the recipe xx