Need a fresh, easy mid week dinner but never have enough time or energy to spend in the kitchen? This Lemon Spaghetti with chicken recipe's here to help! With a simple lemon sauce, this meal can be on the table from start to finish in under 20 minutes. There's no fancy ingredients, but you end up with a classic meal that's become one of my kids favorites!
Lemon Spaghetti With Chicken
You know those evenings when you've had the busiest day, everyone needs a car ride somewhere and then you're hit with the what's for dinner question? This dinner is the solution. You're likely to have these simple ingredients in your home already and it's so easy, if you've got 20 minutes you can whip this up and have it on the table in no time.
If your kids are like mine, a pasta dish is always well received. I have to make an effort to not make pasta every night, I like to cook a whole variety of things but pasta, well, it's there, it gets eaten and it's yummy. So we do have pasta once or twice a week. Is that a lot? I'm not sure, but I usually keep it for those nights when time's not on my side, and I'm tired and the kids are hungry. This is the dish for when you're feeling like that!
Lemon Spaghetti Ingredients
Chicken breasts can be quite expensive here, and since I prefer to buy good quality meat, I'll stock up when they're on offer. Fresh chicken breasts can be frozen easily and so any I don't use go in the freezer. If you read my blog at all, you might know I really like chicken thighs, and mostly if I can, cook with them. I find them more flavorful and juicy.
That said, for this recipe I always use chicken breasts, simply because they're pan fried really fast and so don't become too dry, they slice neatly and just work!
The pasta as always is Wholemeal. Mostly I buy this in the supermarket dried, fresh Wholemeal pasta is not that easy to find where I am, and there's not really a benefit to fresh pasta over dried that I can see anyway. Having a few packets of pasta in your pantry is a must for us and means I can always get a Real food meal on the table in a short space of time.
I buy lemons by the truck load and always have some on hand. If you have lemons but they're not very ripe, you can pierce then once or twice with a sharp knife and pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften them. This makes it a whole lot easier to juice them and make sure you get every last drop. As with most fruits, squeezing an unripe lemon is not a fun experience!
The other star of the show here is the Parmesan. Of course you have to like cheese (did I mention I like cheese??!) but Parmesan gives such a lovely flavor, it's used pretty often in my cooking. Unlike something like a pizza where you want the stringy deliciousness of Mozzarella, Parmesan gives a slightly muted flavor, perfect for little ones and especially good in pasta dishes :)
Lemon Cheese Sauce
Before I tried this, I wasn't sure about lemon and cheese. Yes, I like lemon cheesecake (who doesn't?!) but I couldn't translate this into a dinner. I'm happy to say I was totally wrong and this is delicious. It's not a sauce like a traditional tomatoey sauce we usually think of as going with pasta, it's more of a sauce that coats the spaghetti.
The eagle eyed will have noticed I've used Tagliatelle here when I've made this tonight. I call this Spaghatti and often use Spaghetti pasta, but as with lots pasta dishes, you can swap out the spaghetti for another pasta you have at home.
More Clean Eating Chicken Dinners
How To Make Lemon Spaghetti With Chicken
This recipe is so simple it feels a little like cheating. It's not though, don't be fooled by the next to no time spent in front of the cooker :)
Ingredients
- Pasta Wholemeal, enough for 4 people
- 3-4 Medium Chicken breasts Butterflied
- 3 Lemons Juiced
- 1½ Parmesan
- ¼ Cup Butter Or Olive oil if preferred
- Pepper
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti as per the packet instructions
- While the spaghetti is cooking, heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a little olive oil. Pan fry the butterflied chicken, on both sides until cooked through and then put to one side
- In another pan, add the butter and gently heat until fully melted. Take the butter off the heat and whisk in the lemon juice, and then add the parmesan and gently stir the sauce over a low heat until the parmesan is fully combined
- Drain your spaghetti when it's cooked and return to the pan
- Fold the sauce into the spaghetti, making sure all the pasta is coated. Season with pepper
- Slice the chicken breasts into strips
- Serve the spaghetti in bowls and add sliced chicken to each. Sprinkle with extra parmesan as you like!
- Enjoy :)
Lemon Spaghetti With Chicken Recipe
Lemon Spaghetti with Chicken
Ingredients
- Pasta Wholemeal, enough for 4 people
- 3-4 Medium Chicken breasts Butterflied
- 3 Lemons Juiced
- 1½ Parmesan
- ¼ Cup Butter Or Olive oil if preferred
- Pepper
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti as per the packet instructions
- While the spaghetti is cooking, heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a little olive oil. Pan fry the butterflied chicken, on both sides until cooked through and then put to one side
- In another pan, add the butter and gently heat until fully melted. Take the butter off the heat and whisk in the lemon juice, and then add the parmesan and gently stir the sauce over a low heat until the parmesan is fully combined
- Drain your spaghetti when it's cooked and return to the pan
- Fold the sauce into the spaghetti, making sure all the pasta is coated. Season with pepper
- Slice the chicken breasts into strips
- Serve the spaghetti in bowls and add sliced chicken to each. Sprinkle with extra parmesan as you like!
- Enjoy :)
