Garlic Chicken Rotini

I just want to start by saying that this garlic chicken rotini recipe was born out of necessity. For those of you reading this in the future, it’s currently April 2020 and we’re under social distancing mandates. Since we are being socially distant, Hubs has been doing all the grocery shopping.

That’s right. For 5 long weeks as of writing this post, I haven’t been inside a grocery store. It’s really weird because I am the one that always does the shopping and meal planning. But since we are to be socially distant, and I have a compromised immune system, Hubs has been doing the shopping for me.

Also since we are being socially distant, I have been REALLY bad at meal planning. Why make meal plans when you can just play chopped with whatever Hubs brings home from the store?

So since Hubs is the one shopping, and he is a one-stop-shop kind of guy, there are things that have been “missing” from his trips, and it’s not his fault! For years now I know there are items I get every week, no matter what. I just don’t add them to the list since I am so used to getting them week in and week out.

Since I’m not adding them to the list, he is also not buying them. See? Not his fault! I try to remember to add them, but it doesn’t always happen. So a lot of the meals we’ve made have had to be on the fly with what we have left for the week.

I used leftover shredded chicken that I cooked in the instant pot, but you can use up some rotisserie chicken, roast chicken, whatever you have on hand.

The rotini was also leftover from a previous spaghetti & tomato sauce meal. Since LadyBug doesn’t like sauce on her pasta, we tend to separate the two as we’re putting the leftovers away. It made it super easy for the pasta to be repurposed in this recipe.

The sauce is really simple too. I used what we had on hand, which was chicken broth. But I’m sure if you substituted some of the broth for milk or cream, it would come out equally as delicious.

Ingredients:

8 oz rotini pasta
4 Tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
2 cups chicken broth*
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic, and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
Add chicken, tossing to coat. Cook with the garlic & butter for an additional 3-5 minutes.
Pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly. Continue to cook for 3-5 more minutes.
Toss the parmesan cheese and cooked rotini until well combined. Serve.