Pasta with Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

Pasta with Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

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Pasta with vegetables and chicken, pasta with cabbage, seems like an utterly improbable combination, unless we are talking about Brussels sprouts. Still, the historical region of Tyrol, which includes the Italian provinces of Trento and Bolzano-Bozen, has a surprising recipe: Tyrolean noodles. It includes white cabbage and garlic sausage.

Few people do not know what Brussels sprouts look like. It is a very interesting garden plant, a vegetable crop of the cabbage family. Its distinctive feature is a thick stalk up to half a meter tall with small leaves, and in the leaf axils sit small, cute heads, miniature copies of the familiar white cabbage. One stalk can carry up to 50 Brussels sprouts.

Brussels sprouts are an excellent ingredient for vegetable soups, especially out of vegetable season. The little heads freeze very well and are one of the main “fresh-frozen” vegetables. Such vegetables go wonderfully with all kinds of foods and are highly recommended as a side of rice with vegetables.

Pasta with cabbage, with small Brussels sprouts, makes a tasty and healthy breakfast. For this dish it is best to choose a short pasta that is comparable in size to the sprouts themselves. Penne is ideal: tubes cut at an angle, as long as a matchstick.

Penne goes wonderfully with different sauces. It makes excellent pasta with broccoli, or our favorite, pasta with tomatoes and tomato sauce. The ridged surface of some kinds of penne holds even a thin sauce perfectly.

Pasta with vegetables and chicken is penne “quills” boiled to al dente with fried chicken, tomatoes and Brussels sprouts. The dish is quite simple and perfect for breakfast. The sauce-like add-in is made at the same time the penne cooks. Pasta with vegetables and chicken turns out hearty and keeps you full until a late lunch. The base recipe is pasta with chicken in cream sauce, and next to it in this series is pasta with smoked chicken.

Ingredients

2 servings

For the pasta

  • Penne 200 g
  • Water for cooking the pasta 2 l
  • Salt for cooking the pasta 14 g (7 g per 1 l of water)

For the chicken and cabbage

  • Chicken drumsticks (thigh meat) 2
  • Brussels sprouts 100 g
  • Onion 1
  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • Salt, ground black pepper, oregano to taste

For the dressing and serving

  • Basil 1-2 sprigs (plus a sprig for garnish)
  • Garlic 1 clove
  • Olive oil 1 tbsp
  • Salt, ground black pepper to taste
  • Tomato 1
  • Parmesan (grated) 2-3 tbsp (14–20 g)

Step-by-step recipe

Pasta

It is best to take penne labeled “penne rigate”, with a ridged surface. In my opinion, it is the best pasta of this type and suits this dish perfectly. It is also the most widely available in stores.

  1. Cook the pasta. Bring 2 l of water to a boil over high heat and salt it at 7 g of salt per liter of water, which is 14 g. Add the pasta to the well-boiling water and cook it for the time given on the package, counted from when the water returns to a boil. This guarantees pasta cooked to al dente.

    Penne rigate.

Chicken with Brussels sprouts

  1. While the pasta cooks, prepare the sprouts: remove the outer leaves, which usually dry out and spoil in storage. Larger sprouts can be cut in half.

    Brussels sprouts.

  2. Prepare the chicken. Remove the skin and fat from the drumsticks. Cut off all the meat with a knife and try to remove the white tendons that look like thick threads. Also make sure no bones or cartilage end up in the dish. Cut the chicken into small pieces.

    Chicken and vegetables for the dish.

  3. Fry the onion until soft. Peel the onion and cut it into strips or rings. In a saucepan over medium heat, warm 2 tbsp of olive oil for 2-3 mins and fry the sliced onion in it until soft and starting to turn a pleasant golden color.

    Frying the onion.

  4. Fry the chicken with the onion. Add the cut chicken to the onion and fry everything together over medium heat for 3-4 mins, until the meat turns white on all sides. Then salt and pepper the chicken and onion to taste and add 1-2 pinches of dried oregano, rubbing it between your fingers into a powder.

    Adding the chicken.

  1. Add the Brussels sprouts and braise under a lid. Fry the sprouts with the chicken for 2-3 mins, then reduce the heat to low and cover the saucepan with a lid. Braise the chicken with the sprouts for 8 mins. Since the sprouts are edible even raw, do not braise them until they “fall apart”: they should be al dente.

    Adding the prepared Brussels sprouts.

Dressing

  1. Make the dressing. In a small bowl, mix very finely chopped basil and garlic. Add salt and pepper and stir. When the salt dissolves, add 1 tbsp of olive oil.

    Mixing the basil, garlic and olive oil.

Serving

  1. Combine the pasta with the chicken, sprouts and dressing. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and let the water run off. Mix the pasta and the chicken with Brussels sprouts. Stir and add a ripe fresh tomato cut into thin wedges. Pour the dressing of basil, garlic and olive oil over the pasta and vegetables. The pasta should be fragrant and spicy.

    Mixing the pasta, vegetables and dressing.

  2. Before serving, sprinkle the pasta with finely grated Parmesan and garnish with a sprig of fresh basil.

    Sprinkling with grated Parmesan.

    Pasta with vegetables and chicken is a surprisingly tasty dish that harmoniously combines Brussels sprouts, fried chicken and a spicy dressing. Enjoy a delicious breakfast.

    Pasta with vegetables and chicken

Calories and macros

655 kcal

Serving ≈ 450 g

  • Protein29 g18% of kcal
  • Fat22 g32% of kcal
  • Carbs78 g50% of kcal

100 g146 kcalProtein 6.4 gFat 5 gCarbs 17.3 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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