Roasted Garlic & Parsley Butter Linguine with Charred Chicken Breast

This dish packs a real punch, but is quick and simple to make with little ingredients, whilst looking like you ordered it in a restaurant. Impress your friends at a dinner party or serve to family with a nice Italian wine for a great evening meal. If you happen to be in BBQ season then you can also cook the chicken over fire to add even more flavour, or use a good chargrill pan for a similar result.

This dish uses my easy-to-make Roasted Garlic and Parsley Butter. Prepare this first and chill in the fridge for an hour or so. You can also use this to top Steaks, Chicken, Fish, Camembert and homemade Garlic Bread etc. Click here for the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Packet of Linguine

2. Roasted Garlic & Parsley Butter

3. Chicken Breasts (one per person)

4. Fresh Parsley

5. Good Quality Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese

6. Olive Oil

7. Rock Salt and Black Pepper

Method:

Firstly take your Roasted Garlic & Parsley Butter out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. You want to slice off 2-3 generous slices per portion of pasta and then another slice per chicken breast. Set these aside and heat up a chargrill pan or charcoal BBQ. Ideally, you should use a cast iron chargrill pan or a charcoal BBQ to cook the chicken breasts, this will give them a nice char and smokey flavour.

Whilst the chargrill pan or BBQ is heating up, boil some water for your pasta and turn on your oven to 180c to finish the chicken breasts.

When ready and up to temp, rub your chicken breasts in olive oil to stop them sticking, season well with rock salt and black pepper and then chargrill these for around 8-10 mins, turning every few mins to create charr marks. Once nicely charred, pop a slice of the Roasted Garlic & Parsley Butter onto each breast and then put these into the oven for 5 minutes to finish. The chicken is ready when it reaches 75c internally. You should rest the chicken for 5-8 mins before slicing and serving.

Whilst the chicken is cooking, pop your linguine in a large pan with boiling water and rock salt, add a little olive oil and cook as per packet instructions. Drain the linguine when cooked Al dente, reserving some of the pasta water. Finely grate your cheese and keep it to one side for later.

Put the drained linguine back into the pan on a low heat, add the Roasted Garlic & Parsley Butter slices slowly and mix in well with the pasta and add the grated cheese to form a cream with the butter. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking water to loosen up the pasta, mix and stir well, season with rock salt and black pepper. If the pasta is not loosening up, add more of the cooking water.

To plate, slice the rested chicken breasts, plate up the linguine with a sprinkling of the remaining grated cheese, place the chicken on top, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle over the chopped parsley.