This recipe is great whether you are pressed for time or are just looking for something extremely simple that packs a lot of flavor.
Total cooking time will be about 12 – 15 minutes, once all of your prepping is done. What youll need: 1 – 4 chicken breasts, 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 grapefruit or orange, 5 cloves of garlic, 1/4 a red onion, 1 teaspoon of oil, 1/4 stick of butter, 6 + sticks of asparagus, 1/2 pound of fettuccini, 1 12oz jar of classico tomato basil afredo sauce, 2 tablespoons of parsley and a smidgen of black pepper.
Begin by pounding your chicken breasts so that they are tender and not quite as thick as when they come out of the package. The thickness of the breasts is important due to the reduction in cooking time as the breast becomes flatter. Next, I would start your water boiling for the fettuccini. Add the oil to one frying pan and the butter to the other. Turn both to medium heat. Peel and chop both the onion and the garlic, and immediately add to the pan with the oil. While these items are cooking, roll your lemon, lime and grapefruit or orange on a flat surface, to loosen up the juices. When the garlic browns, add the juice from each of the fruits.
Add the jar of sauce to a small saucepan, and heat on medium low.
Add the chicken, parsley and black pepper to the pan with the garlic and onions. Cook, flipping intermittently, for about 2 minutes on low heat. Add your fettuccini to the boiling water. Raise the heat on the chicken to medium, and continue to flip intermittently. After the fettuccini has cooked for about 5 minutes, add your asparagus to the pan with the butter. Cook in high hit, stirring occasionally. Its probably a good idea to cut into your chicken, and see how far along it is. If its about half cooked, then leave the heat where it is, and continue to flip back and forth. If the meat still seems really raw, crank up the heat for the last 5 minutes.
When the final 5 minutes are up, your pasta will be slightly al-dente. If this is how you like it, remove everything from the heat, strain your pasta, and serve immediately, covering the pasta with the sauce, and adding all of the chicken cooking juice over the chicken and asparagus.
As you can see, this meal is incredibly simple and is as easy as pie to cook. Its also inexpensive and packs loads of fresh flavors. Some people are completely and utterly against using jar sauces, but Ive found the classico brand to be quite decent. If you are up for making your own tomato basil afredo sauce, go right ahead. The citrus flavors work well with both the chicken and the cream sauce, and the asparagus provides a slightly bitter counterpart.
Enjoy!
