Good Things Come In Small Packages

I know you've heard the proverb: "Good things come in small packages."


Favorite Food Find Friday brings you two such packages:


1. Purdue Chicken's Perfect Portions boneless chicken breasts



2. Emeril's 1 cup sized chicken stock



I have to be honest with you, I hate handling raw chicken. I don't like how it feels in my hand. When I do handle raw chicken, I always have visions of my entire kitchen being shown under that special black light like they use on Dateline NBC or 20/20 when they do those "Germs are all around you" shows-where they show how your entire kitchen has been contaminated with germs from raw chicken. In fact that was probably part of their marketing plan...I can just see them now sitting around the conference table laughing:

"...yeah this would be great for those germaphobic housewives who get freaked out by germ exposure news magazine shows...".
Thanks, I appreciate it.

So why do I love Purdue's Perfect Portions? They are neatly packaged and nicely trimmed. They are just right when I only need 1 or 2 chicken breasts for a recipe-I don't have to cook more than I need and/or I don't have to wrap and package any slippery raw chicken I'm not using right away. You can freeze and thaw only what you need. What's not to love?


Now on to my friend Emeril...I love his stock-it has wonderful flavor He's not actually my friend, but I would like to compliment him (or his food company). I think it was complete genius to create 1-cup sized containers for his stock. It's still available in the larger containers, but when you are making a recipe that only uses a small amount of stock these containers (to steal Purdue's tag) are perfect portions.


Using my two favorite food finds for this week I've made a tasty pasta dish I think your whole family will love...mine does. Have a great weekend!


Pasta with Chicken, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Herbs


1 lemon
2 boneless chicken breast halves
1 pound pasta
2/3 cup of the water used to cook the pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil, drained)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary (1 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil (1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese


Cut the lemon in half and set one half aside. Place the chicken in a small bowl and squeeze the remaining lemon half over the chicken; let sit for 20 minutes.


Cook the pasta al dente according to package directions; drain, reserving 2/3 cup of the pasta water.

Melt the butter in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 4 minutes, turn and cook chicken an additional 4 minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, basil, salt and pepper to the pan, cover and cook an additional 3-4 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and cut into strips.


Stir 1/2 cup of the chicken broth into the pan with the sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the cooked pasta to the pan along with the remaining chicken broth and the pasta water; stir to combine well. Stir in the Parmesan cheese. Carve the remaining lemon half into thin slices and stir into the pasta.