When you’re utterly exhausted from packing up your apartment for a move – 133 boxes in 2.5 days – but are too tired to cook so you go to bed hungry and wake up in the night with nothing but chicken and spaghetti on your mind.
You get up the next day and make it for brunch because you’re in dire need of some real sustenance and nothing else will do.
Pan-fried chicken cutlets topped with crumbled feta cheese over thin spaghetti tossed in an easy lemon-garlic pan sauce.
Skinny chicken breasts are dusted in flour and cooked in olive oil until they get a light and crispy coating on the outside with tender, juicy outsides.
Once the chicken is cooked the sauce is made in the same pan where it picks up all the crispy browned bits of flavor off the bottom. There’s a lot of garlic, chicken broth, a little bit of optional white wine and fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
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The sauce simmers briefly as the spaghetti cooks and is tossed together with a bit of grated Parmesan cheese to help it cling and stick to the spaghetti.
The chicken is sliced and sits atop the spaghetti like a prize with a smattering of salty feta and fresh green parsley.
It’s light and refreshing and utterly delicious. My craving was so bad I ate it again for dinner the same night.
No regrets.
Lemon Feta Chicken Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 4 chicken cutlets
- sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour plus more if needed
- olive oil
- ¼ cup minced garlic
- 1 can 14 ounces chicken broth
- ¼ cup white wine optional
- ¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 8 ounces thin spaghetti like Barilla whole grain
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Working one at a time dredge them with the flour, shaking off the excess.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and coat the bottom with olive oil. Cook the cutlets in batches for 3 - 4 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove to a plate and cover with foil.
- Turn the heat down to low and add another tablespoon or two of olive oil. Cook the garlic with a dash of salt 2 - 3 minutes stirring often until fragrant.
- Stir in the chicken broth and white wine, if using. Turn the heat up and bring to a simmer, simmer slowly for 7 - 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Put a lid on the pan to keep it warm.
- Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti to al dente according to package directions. Drain and reserve ⅓ cup of the pasta water.
- Add the spaghetti to the sauce along with the Parmesan cheese and toss well, add a little of the pasta water if needed to help it coat the spaghetti.
- Thinly slice the chicken on the bias and place on top of the spaghetti.
- Sprinkle the feta and parsley on top to serve.