The Screw-Your-Diet Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce & Pan-Fried Chicken
In my unprofessional opinion, you should be able to screw your diet every day. But that’s me and I’m fat. If you don’t want to be fat, eat healthily every meal and be a gym bunny. If you want to be fat, eat lots and lots and don’t exercise. Guarantee balloon up one.
If you just want to indulge once in a while, here’s one for you. I call it the Screw-Your-Diet Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce & Pan-Fried Chicken. You can call it anything you like as long as you make it.
When is the best time to make it? I reckon Monday, which was the day when I made it. Or Sunday because it’s the end of the week and you’re allowed. Or any day in between. Go crazy! 
First, have a recipe to refer to. I followed Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce rather faithfully. Just added chicken ‘cos I didn’t feel like eating plain pasta. Since it’s a Screw-Your-Diet thingamajig, might as well go all the way, right??
The ingredients are quite easily obtainable. I just wished that I’d gone to Jaya Grocer instead of Giant to purchase my chicken and cream. The raw chicken at Giant didn’t look very appetizing. Luckily for me, I only had to pan-fry them to oblivion so it wasn’t too bad. Here was what I used:
For pasta with tomato cream sauce
- 1 Onion, chopped
- 5 Garlic cloves, minced
- 2 Tbs Olive Oil. I only have extra virgin
- 2 Tbs Butter
- 2 cans (425g each) tomato sauce
- 200ml Whipping Cream. You can use Heavy/Light if you want
- 100ml Grated Parmesan. You can add or reduce
- Salt + Black Pepper + Sugar to taste
- As much pasta as you can eat. I use linguine
For pan-fried chicken
- 4 Boneless Chicken Breasts, trim the fat please!
- 2 Chinese spoons of all-purpose flour
- Black Pepper + Salt + Whatever Else You Want To Put
- Olive Oil, enough to pan fry your chicken
- 2 Tbs Butter
1 – Cook your pasta according to package directions. For my ingredients, it serves about 6 servings so have enough pasta! When it’s cooked, remove the pasta to another bowl. I add a little butter to my steaming hot pasta for kicks. The original recipe asks that you reserve some pasta water for potential sauce thickening later. I don’t do this because I use a lot of salt to boil my pasta.
2 – Put heat to Medium. Put in Olive Oil + Butter. Smell your kitchen… buttery!
3 – Put in chopped Onions + Garlic. Saute for about a minute. Smell your kitchen some more!
4 – Add the Tomato Sauce. Stir. Add Black Pepper + Salt + Sugar to taste. I ended up adding about 1 Tbs sugar to counter the acidity. Put heat to Low, cook for 30 mins, stirring occasionally.
Now it’s time to prepare and cook your chicken!
Flatten the bejeweled out of your chicken breasts. Trust me, it cooks better and is nicer this way. Place the meat in a plastic bag, give it ample space then use something heavy to pound it. As you can see in the photo above, the difference between a flattened and a non-flattened chicken breast. I basically use the same method as the chicken for my Chicken Parmigiana.
1 – Mix Flour + Condiments. Don’t be like me and accidentally put in a bit too much black pepper.
2 – Coat your flattened chicken breast with the mixed flour. Coat well.
3 – In a frying pan or awesome stainless steel wok, go on Medium Low heat. Let it heat up, then add Olive Oil + Butter. When it smokes a bit, put in the chicken. I cooked each side for 5 mins.
Forgot to take a photo of the pan-fried chicken at this point, but here’s what it looks like after being sliced up. Aside from the slightly overpowering black pepper taste (kids, pay attention to which side of the spice jar you’re pouring from next time), it was pretty friggin’ awesome!
Your tomato sauce should be done by now. Switch off the heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
Add in the cream. My measuring cup was bought from Daiso, so my Japanese one cup is 200ml. Awesomely, whipping cream comes in packets of 200ml, hurrah! You could use the US or Metric measurements and add more cream if you want to.
Stir stir stir, add grated Parmesan. I reckon I used about 100ml. Yes, it’s the same grated Parmesan from last century. Yes it’s still good to use. No it’s not moldy or expired.
Stir stir stir. At some point, the sauce and the pasta have to come together. Whether you dump the pasta back into the pot, or scoop out the sauce to pour all over your pasta, just do whatever you like. As long as they’re well and truly mixed.
PW says to put in fresh basil. I don’t like eating fresh basil. Giant didn’t have Italian parsley. So for this one, I’m gonna have to make do without any illusions of green. I could have photoshopped it in but that would be rather sad.
For the final touch, slice up your pan-fried artery-clogging chicken and serve with your pasta in tomato cream sauce. And makannnnnnnnnn!!!!!
I thought it was pretty good, if I may say so myself. Anyway this recipe makes about 6 servings. Guess what I’m having for lunch and dinner tomorrow?
Related Posts
- Italian Tomato @ Jalan Maarof, Bangsar
- Comfort food: beef bolognese sauce with chunky vegetables
- The Breaded and Baked Chicken ‘cos it’s healthier than fried
- Noteworthy
- Suanie made Chicken Parmigiana, you should too
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Screw the diet!! This totally look like something worth screwing the diet for…yums! LOL
flattening the chicken is a great idea! gonna do that.
Tien: Sinfully delicious, lots of butter YUM
KY: It’s a good idea for the thick chicken breasts
that looks too awesome yums
Yah definitely agree the meat at Jaya Grocer is way better than other places.
Looks yummy mmm.
Hey Suanie, I also made tomato cream sauce about a few week ago using her recipe, lol. But I added in some mozarella cheese for some more screw-your-diet effect
It’s definitely a yummy recipe!!
kim: thanks!
can’t go wrong with tomato and cream
ST: Heh I was so crestfallen upon seeing the meat at Giant. Just really had to take the best packs which wasn’t much of a choice.
Cas: Hehehe awesome, isn’t it? The more I eat, the unhealthier I feel but also happier