By Football practice is happening. GISH announced summer conditioning for incoming freshmen, and Justin is going — masked, outdoors, socially distanced, which is an interesting way to play a contact sport. They run drills. They lift. They run routes. They do not tackle because tackling is contact and contact is the thing we are avoiding, except that football is the thing that is entirely about contact, and the contradiction is the pandemic in miniature: do the thing, but not the thing, but also the thing.
Justin comes home from practice with the specific glow of a boy who has been given permission to do the thing he was born to do. The pandemic took school, took normalcy, took his grandmother behind a screen door, but it did not take football, not yet, and the not-yet is enough. Justin plays for the not-yet. We all live in the not-yet these days.
I wrote my third Overdrive column this week — pandemic trucking, the new normal on the road. Masks at loading docks, temperature checks, the empty rest stops and the full highways. I wrote about the slow cooker meal I made while hauling PPE (personal protective equipment) from a warehouse in Omaha to a hospital in Sioux Falls — the absurdity and the honor of hauling masks to a hospital while wearing a mask in a truck while cooking chili in a slow cooker. The absurdity is the story. The story is the job. The job is the life.
I made chicken parmesan for dinner — breaded chicken cutlets, marinara sauce, mozzarella, served over spaghetti. It is a production — the dredging, the frying, the saucing, the baking. Three pans, two hours. But the result is the kind of dinner that makes the family stop what they are doing and come to the table without being called, and the coming-without-being-called is the highest compliment a meal can receive, higher than words, higher than seconds, the physical fact of people gravitating toward the kitchen because the kitchen smells like love in breadcrumbs.
That chicken parmesan took everything I had — three pans, two hours, the full production — and watching Justin come through the door still glowing from practice and just stop when he smelled dinner made every minute of it worth it. When I want that same gravity, that same pull toward the kitchen, but need something a little more weeknight-forgiving, Chicken Penne Alfredo is the dish I reach for: rich and creamy and substantial, the kind of meal that says you did good today, sit down. It’s got that same spirit — chicken, pasta, something warm and generous holding it all together — without the three-pan cleanup.
Chicken Penne Alfredo
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 12 oz penne pasta
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook penne according to package directions until al dente, about 10–12 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, then drain and set aside.
- Season and cook the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and cooked through, about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- Build the Alfredo sauce. Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, melt butter and add minced garlic. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Pour in heavy cream and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently, for 3–4 minutes until slightly thickened.
- Add the Parmesan. Remove skillet from heat and stir in grated Parmesan until melted and smooth. If sauce is too thick, add reserved pasta water a splash at a time to reach a creamy, pourable consistency.
- Combine and serve. Return chicken to the skillet, add drained penne, and toss everything together over low heat for 1–2 minutes until coated and warmed through. Taste and adjust seasoning. Divide among plates and garnish with fresh parsley.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 680 | Protein: 42g | Fat: 34g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 520mg