🍝 Pasta
Chicken parmesan garlic pasta
Creamy, garlicky, and topped with crispy chicken
⏱️ Time estimate: about 30 minutes
Crispy chicken thighs land over short pasta tossed in a creamy parmesan-garlic sauce with red onion, tomato puree, basil, and just enough stock to keep everything glossy.
Ingredients
- 4 skin-on chicken thighs, boneless if possible
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 tablespoons tomato puree
- 220 milliliters chicken stock
- 300 milliliters double cream
- 40 grams grated Parmesan
- 5 basil leaves, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
- 400 grams dried pasta such as conchiglie, orecchiette, or rigatoni
Instructions
- Crisp the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs skin-side down, season well, and weigh them down if you like for extra crispness. Cook about 8 minutes until the skin is golden, then flip and cook another minute or so until done. Remove to rest.
- Start the sauce. Add the butter and red onion to the same pan and cook for 7 to 10 minutes until soft, then stir in the garlic for 1 minute.
- Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until 1 minute shy of the package instructions. Reserve a little pasta water before draining.
- Deepen the base. Stir the tomato puree into the onions and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes, until it turns a deeper rusty color.
- Make it creamy. Add the chicken stock, double cream, and most of the Parmesan. Stir and bring to a gentle bubble.
- Toss the pasta. Add the drained pasta and toss until coated. Loosen with a splash of pasta water if needed, then stir through the basil and taste for seasoning.
- Serve. Spoon into bowls, slice the chicken and arrange it on top, then finish with the remaining Parmesan and more basil.
Pasta note: a splash of reserved pasta water is the little hinge between thick and glossy, so keep some nearby before you drain.