Chicken and Parsley Pasta

I was over at The Pioneer Woman's site when she posted a "Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta" recipe. My mouth immediately started to water and so I thought I would test out an altered version of this. I called up my parents and told them I was coming over so they could play test dummies for my new recipe. Needless to say, they (and my brothers) LOVED it. I didn't add as much lemon as she did since my dad doesn't particularly care for lemon in his food and I replaced the basil with fresh parsley. Would you believe the grocery store was fresh out of basil?? How is that possible?!

I finely chopped up half of the parsley bush. Be sure not to include the stems. They are extremely bitter.

I seasoned up 3 thinly sliced chicken breasts with seasoning salt, pepper, Old Bay and an Italian blend. If you use regular chicken breasts, pound them until they are thin. You want them to cook evenly.

I browned the chicken breasts in EVOO. Not too much though but just enough to leave about half an inch of oil in there. If you have a grill skillet, use that.

Once the pasta was done boiling and drained, I tossed the chicken (which I diced up and shredded) into my cheese sauce. [cheese sauce: 1/2 stick of butter, 1/2 a cup of half-n-half, 1/2 a cup of heavy cream, two cups of blended cheeses. I used mozzarella, romano, asiago and parmesan cheese. It's what I had on hand.) I also threw in a handful of diced parsley and mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: If your sauce is too thick, save some of the water the pasta boiled in and add it to thin it out.

And wa-la! Dinner is served. My family loved this dish. It was very filling and easy to do.