Easy Chicken Arrabiata Recipe

This dish will serve 4 adults with the ingredients given, however for more or less people adjust the ingredients to suit.

This is a family chicken Arrabiata recipe, which we have made hundreds of times, if you have young children you may want to reduce or swop the chillies for something different to suit their taste buds. For others you can make the sauce as hot as you like by adding one or two more chillies. The recipe provided is for a medium/hot sauce.

Arrabiata sauce is an Italian sauce, originally made in Rome. The name arrabiata literally means " angry sauce" due to the fact that the recipe contains chilies. There are a few different varieties of Arrabiata sauce some adding different types of chili peppers to alter the heat and some chefs adding basil. This sauce is a tried and tested one but by experimenting you can easily make the sauce you prefer. The main ingredients of any Arrabiata sauce is good olive oil, garlic, chillies, tomatoes and parsley or basil.

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons Olive Oil or Extra Virgin if prefered.
12 fresh Chopped Tomatoes.
4 ounces of Tomato Sauce or a big squeeze of tomato puree.
1 pound of Chicken Breasts with skin removed.
8 Large Sliced Mushrooms
1 Large Onion
3 Lge Cloves of Garlic-chopped
1/4 cup Fresh Parsley
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning or mixed herbs.
1 large packet of Pasta- Rigatoni or Penne normally
2 Large Chillies- Med/Hot in strength.

Chop the Parsley and put to one side.

Cut the chicken into bite size chunks.

In large pan or wok, heat the olive oil to a medium heat. Add garlic, chillies and parsley, let the garic soften for one/two minutes.

Add the chopped onion, mushrooms, and chicken chunks, stir well and cover. Cook gently until the chicken is cooked through - 10/15 minutes and check the juices are running clear from the chicken. Stir the mix.

Add salt and ground black pepper to your own taste. I normally add quite a bit of black pepper because we like it that way and this dish is hot anyway.

If you have some, open a bottle of red wine, any medium red wine will do. Add a glass full when adding the tomatoes and pour yourself one for doing a good job.

Add the tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, and remaining spices. Mix well and taste, add more chili if desired the sauce isn't hot enough. But remember the sauce will aquire more heat while it's cooking.

Reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for about 30 minutes. The last 10mins. should be uncovered to help thicken the sauce, if it needs it. Check the seasoning and add more if desired.

Now cook your pasta, with a pinch of salt and a table spoonfull of olive oil. Drain and serve into bowls.

Add a few Basil leaves to the top of the sauce for garnish and transfer straight to the table.

This dish keeps very well and on occasions when there has been some left over ( not very often I might add) the dish tastes even better when everything has marinated and been left over night in the refrigerator. So if you know your having friends or family coming over make the sauce the day or evening before. Allow it to cool and cover with a lid or some foil and put to one side. You can refridgerator the sauce when it has totally cooled.

This dish can be served with all types of pasta including spaghetti, but we prefer penne or rigotoni-your choice, it doesn't really matter. This dish because it is a little fiery ( hot) is great on a autumn or winter Fri/Sat evening with friends round for dinner as everything can be pre-prepared.

Serve the dish with the pasta and a green salad. We like to add french green beans, cut into half and add them to the salad. Sprinkle a few basil leaves over the pasta sauce before serving. Have some ciabatta or garlic bread cut up ready so you can soak any juices up with it.

Have a bowl of Parmesan cheese on the table for your family and friends to enjoy.

Try a bottle or two of Italian red, something like Valpolicella wine which goes excellently with this dish.-Enjoy!!

Hope you enjoy your meal, would you mind now either re-tweeting it or adding it to Facebook. You can vote this recipe up at the bottom of the page and leave any comments for me-thanks.