Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta

The literary-magazine results came in Tuesday afternoon at three PM Central Time. I was in the dining hall eating a salad and refreshing my email between bites. The acceptance notification arrived from the editorial board with the subject line “TCC Quarterly Freshman Issue — Submission Status.” My piece had been accepted. Eight pieces had been selected from one hundred and forty submissions, and mine was one of them. The essay would run in the December issue, distributed campus-wide in print and posted online by the editorial board. The print run was a thousand copies.

I read the email three times before I let myself believe it. Then I stood up from the dining-hall table, walked outside into the grey November afternoon, and called Dustin from the lawn outside the dining hall. He was in the library and answered on the second ring. I told him. He told me to meet him at the campus coffee shop in ten minutes. He bought me a flat white and an oversize chocolate chip cookie. We sat at a corner table and didn’t talk much. He read the acceptance email on my phone twice and grinned the second time.

Dr. Choi met me at her office Thursday afternoon during her office hours and walked me through the editing process for the printed version. The essay needed only minor copy edits — a comma reset, a paragraph break she suggested, two sentences she wanted me to consider tightening but didn’t insist on. She handed me the marked-up printout in a thin manila folder and said, “You did the work. Now I want you to think about whether you want to take a sophomore-year independent study with me to develop the next piece.” I said yes before I’d finished thinking about it.

Sunday I made creamy lemon chicken pasta because the dish has the brightness I was carrying in my chest all week. The recipe is a twenty-five-minute weeknight, but the brightness is the whole point.

The technique: two boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded between sheets of plastic wrap to a uniform quarter-inch thickness. Salted, peppered, dredged in seasoned flour, seared in olive oil and butter for four minutes a side until deeply golden. Out to a plate. In the same pan, four cloves of garlic minced for thirty seconds; deglaze with a half-cup of dry white wine and the juice of one and a half lemons; reduce two minutes. Half a cup of low-sodium chicken broth, a teaspoon of dried oregano, salt, pepper. Half a cup of heavy cream off the heat. The chicken back into the sauce to warm through ninety seconds. Tossed with a pound of linguine cooked al dente in salted water and a couple ladles of pasta water for the gloss. A generous handful of grated parmesan and fresh chopped parsley to finish.

Dustin came up to the second-floor kitchen at five-thirty PM. We ate at the common-room table with the late-afternoon November sun coming through the west-facing windows at the kind of low angle that turns everything warm-toned. Priya joined. Two dorm-mates wandered in. Five plates around the table.

Mama called Sunday night when I told her the news on Tuesday-evening phone call but had asked her to wait to celebrate until the official acceptance was out in writing. She got the news Sunday after I’d posted the campus link on Facebook. She cried on the phone in the way she does when she’s proud and trying not to make me feel weird about it — the throat tightens, the voice goes a half-step higher, she says my name twice. Cody got on the line after Mama and asked when the issue would be online so he could send the link to Marcus Wells in Sapulpa. Marcus had emailed Cody two months ago asking how I was doing at TCC. The line of acknowledgment runs from Tulsa to Sapulpa to Tulsa and back. The kitchen and the writing keep braiding together. They are the same braid.

White wine and lemon deglaze, cream off the heat, parmesan at the end. Twenty-five minutes. Here’s the build.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

12 oz spaghetti or linguine
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water before draining. Set pasta aside.
Sear the chicken. Season chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add chicken in a single layer and cook 5—6 minutes, turning once, until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium and melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the same skillet. Add garlic and cook 60 seconds until fragrant, stirring constantly. Pour in chicken broth and let it reduce by half, about 2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Bring to a gentle simmer.
Add the cheese. Stir in Parmesan a little at a time until fully melted and the sauce is smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add reserved pasta water a splash at a time to loosen it.
Combine and finish. Return the cooked chicken to the skillet, then add the drained pasta. Toss everything together until the pasta is evenly coated and heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and lemon juice as needed.
Serve. Divide into bowls or transfer to a covered baking dish if you’re delivering it somewhere. Top with fresh parsley and extra Parmesan. Eat it all. I mean it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta