Chicken and Penne in Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce with Bonus Cannoli Cupcakes

Yesterday was Marsha's birthday, and we celebrated with our family and some of her friends with a feast. She requested that I make my chicken and penne with roasted garlic cream sauce and cannoli cupcakes, which I did. The pasta recipe is below, but the cupcake recipe is found at this link. The only change I made to the cupcakes was that white chocolate pudding mix was not at either of the grocery stores I went to so I used French Vanilla pudding mix for half and chocolate pudding mix for the other half of the frostings. I do think the white chocolate is better, but the vanilla was quite delicious and I'm told the chocolate was, too.

Cannoli Cupcakes

As for the pasta, the original recipe is from Caprial Pence, who is a chef that I watched on PBS a lot in the 1990s. She was part of the inspiration for me to go to culinary school for that one year program that I did. I never became a chef, but I have no regrets about that year because I learned a ton.

I used to make this pasta dish a lot until I married my severely lactose-intolerant husband. At the time we married, he was still quite unwell and could not tolerate any dairy at all. Years later, his gut health is much improved and he is able to enjoy cheese, butter, and cream in moderation and with the assistance of Digestive Advantage pills. But I still save this dish for special occasions only at this point. I tweaked it by adding chicken to stretch it and that's how I have made it from the beginning. Sadly, we didn't get any photos of the pasta, but trust me when I say that it is delicious and crowd-pleasing.

Chicken and Penne in Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce

Adapted from Caprial's Cafe Favorites by Caprial Pence

Serves 4-6

1 lb cooked chicken, large diced

1 lb penne pasta, cooked to al dente

1 head garlic plus 2 cloves minced garlic

2-3 oz bacon (about 4-6 slices), medium diced

2-3 Roma tomatoes

1 Cup dry white wine

2 Cups heavy cream

3 oz grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp fresh basil, chiffonade (link shows how to chiffonade)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Before you start on the sauce, you should work on these first few items.

1. You can use a rotisserie chicken, but I use chicken breasts and I either poach them in salted water or bake them in the oven until cooked through. Let cool and then chop into a large dice, about bite sized pieces.

2.  Pre-roast the head of garlic. This link has excellent instructions (with photos) for how to roast a head of garlic in the oven. You can roast it in the toaster oven, but you have to watch it. You can also roast it in the air fryer, but it will take less time and you should definitely watch it carefully so that it doesn't burn. Burned garlic is very bitter and you don't want that. You will want this garlic to have cooled a bit before you use it. You can make it up to a week before, storing whole in the refrigerator.

3.  Cook penne according to box instructions to al dente or just under al dente. You can cook the pasta ahead of time, drizzle with olive oil to prevent clumping, and set it aside. It is going to be added to the sauce later and will reheat quickly.

To prepare the sauce:

1. Dice the bacon.

2. Cut off the stem end of the tomatoes and discard and then cut the tomatoes in half. Squeeze the seeds out and discard. Then dice the tomatoes.

3. If you have fresh garlic, mince 2 cloves. If you have the jar of pre-minced garlic, you will need 2 Tbsp.

4. Heat a large sauté pan over medium-medium high heat. Cook the bacon until browned. Remove bacon from pan and hold until later. Keep the bacon fat in the pan.

5. Squeeze the roasted garlic into the pan, being careful not to get the paper shell into the pan. Mash up the garlic a bit with a wooden spoon. After a minute add the fresh garlic and stir in with the roasted garlic mash, being careful not to burn it, about 1-2 minutes.

6. Add the tomatoes and sauté for a couple of minutes. Then add the wine. Let the wine reduce to about 1/4 cup and then add the cream. Stir the sauce often and let it simmer until it has reduced and thickened. You know the sauce is just about ready when you take the wooden spoon that has a bit of sauce coating it, turn it so the back of the spoon is up, run your clean finger through the sauce. If the edges of cleared line stays separate, the sauce is ready. If the lines run back together, let the sauce continue to simmer.

7. Add the bacon and chicken to the sauce. Then add the pasta to the sauce and mix will. If the chicken was cold, allow enough time for the chicken to reheat. The sauce will appear to loosen, but that's OK. 

8. Once the chicken is warmed, add the Parmesan cheese. Then taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper as needed.

9. The last step is to add the chiffonade of basil and mix in well. Now you're ready to serve.

Goes great with garlic bread and a Caesar salad. Enjoy!