Irresistibly Quick and Easy Blistered Tomato Pasta with Chicken

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Impress your dinner guests with this deceptively simple Blistered Tomato Pasta with Chicken. The blistered tomatoes add a burst of flavor to the tender chicken and al dente pasta.

 

This recipe has been in the works for a couple of months.  Ever since I made these pan roasted tomatoes and these blistered tomatoes I’ve been wanting to make this dish.  Granted, it was going to have grilled chicken or some pan seared chicken cutlets, but I changed my mind and sautéed the chicken with the tomatoes for a richer flavored sauce.  And it is definitely flavorful!  You could even serve the pasta with some broccoli cheese stuffed chicken.

 

The chunks of chicken, the burst tomatoes, and the hearty pasta come together quickly for a tasty and hearty meal. This is one of those meals that whips up in no time but tastes fabulous. It’s super light and perfect for a summer weeknight meal but hearty enough for chilly fall or winter nights. And fancy enough for a dinner party!

 

 

Why and how do you blister tomatoes in a skillet?

 

Blistering tomatoes makes a delicious sauce for pasta because. Caramelizing the sugars in the tomatoes intensifies their natural sweetness creating a rich and flavorful sauce. This deliciously tangy sauce is a great contrast to the pasta and chicken in this recipe. Enhancing the natural flavors of tomatoes through blistering elevates the overall taste of the dish, making it a deliciously quick weeknight dinner option.

 

To blister tomatoes in a skillet, start by heating olive oil over high heat. Add whole cherry or grape tomatoes to the skillet along with some garlic and herbs. Turn the heat down to medium-high and allow the ingredients to cook until the tomatoes start to blister and burst. If you have some stubborn tomatoes, lightly press them with the back of a wooden spoon to get them to burst.

 

 

What types of tomatoes to use in tis blistered tomato recipe?

 

For this blistered tomato pasta recipe, you’ll want to use ripe cherry or grape tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are sweeter than grape tomatoes. Grape tomatoes have both sweet and tart flavors in there. Since the tomato season is starting to wind down, you could easily use over ripe tomatoes in this recipe to prevent tossing them out. The small size of grape and cherry tomatoes ensures they cook and blister quickly, releasing their juices to create a flavorful sauce.

 

If you have some Campari or cocktail tomatoes, you could use, those, too. These tomatoes have a tomato flavor with fruity notes in there. They will make more sauce, of course, but they will work in this recipe. Also, small Roma tomatoes would work, too. They garden fresh tomato flavor makes the sauce bright. Large Romas might not be a good choice but if you can coarsely chop them in the pan after they’ve burst then you could feasibly use those, too.

 

 

What are some benefits of using water from the cooked pasta?

 

Pasta water is a great thickener to any sauce. It makes for a silky smooth carbonara, it helps a Bolognese stick to the pasta. In the case of this recipe, it makes for a creamy and smooth sauce that might have otherwise been a bit acidic from the tomatoes. It contains starch from the pasta which is magic to any pasta and sauce recipe.

 

I don’t know if you remember, but when I was a kid in school, we used starchy water to make some paper mâché. Starchy water was also used, back in the day, to stiffen shirts like the spray starch we have today. Starch makes things thick and sticky. That’s a win win for pasta and sauce. It makes the sauce stick to the pasta and chicken in this blistered pasta with chicken recipe. So, don’t just discard that water. Add a little to the sauce when you make some pasta next time and you’ll see what I mean.

 

 

Ingredients You’ll Need

 

There are such simple ingredients in this recipe.

Vegetables: garlic, onion, tomatoes

Herbs and spices: garlic salt, Italian seasoning, black pepper, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano

Remaining ingredients: chicken, pasta, pasta water

 

Instructions for making blistered tomato pasta with chicken

 

Start by cooking your favorite pasta. We like angel hair pasta a lot. It cooks up quick and easy for busy weeknight meals. You could use regular spaghetti or even fettucine in this recipe. Short pastas like rotini, penne, or even some cellantini which is fancy way of saying long corkscrew macaroni. It’s one of my favorite short pasta shapes.

 

 

Next, cook the chicken. Start with a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the shallots and garlic until they’re fragrant before adding in the chicken. Cook the chicken until it’s nicely browned. Remove from the pan and keep warm while you cook the tomatoes.

 

Crank up the heat on the pan to high and let it get good and hot before adding in the tomatoes along with the herbs and spices. Turn the heat down to medium-high and cook the tomatoes, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes start to burst. Feel free to carefully press the stubborn tomatoes that take too long to pop open.

 

 

Add the chicken back to the pan and stir everything together. Reduce the heat to medium and let everything just simmer a little and the sauce to reduce. Stir in one cup of the pasta water and continue to simmer until the sauce is thickened to your liking. Finally, toss in the pasta before serving.

 

What does blistered tomato pasta with chicken taste like?

 

Just look at those chunks of chicken, the burst tomatoes, and the hearty pasta. This is one of those meals that whip up in no time but tastes fabulous. It’s super light and perfect for a summer weeknight meal. But it’s also hearty enough for a chilly fall or winter night.

 

The chicken is tender and juicy. The pasta and tomato sauce is rich with a sweet and tangy flavor to it. The garlic, shallots, and herbs are the supporting cast in this delicious chicken and pasta recipe. Then there’s the glue that brings it all together which is the pasta water. It adds a pasta-like flavor to the sauce, but not one that you really taste. It adds a depth of flavor to the sauce that makes it richer.

 

 

This is one of those go-to recipes for busy nights. There’s very little prep work. All I had to do was chop the tomatoes and herbs. The garlic and shallots went into a kitchen chopper, so I didn’t even have to chop those. The longest part is cooking the pasta from start to finish. That’s about 20 to 25 minutes depending on how fast the water boils and the type of pasta you use.

 

This is also a recipe that has great table presence for a dinner party! Just look at that pan full of pasta and chicken goodness. Garnish it with some chopped parsley and serve it with a side Caesar or tossed salad and garlic bread and you have a delicious meal for your guests. They’ll think you cooked forever, but it really was just about 20 minutes or so.

Quick and Easy Chicken Recipes

• Blistered Tomato Pasta with Chicken from from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Caramelized Chicken with Jalapeno Cream from The Spiffy Cookie
• Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan from Palatable Pastime
• Creamy Tuscan Skillet Chicken from That Recipe
• Fiesta Chicken Bowls from Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
• Texas Roadhouse Herb Crusted Chicken from Jen Around the World

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