on a penne bake...

I never thought I'd say this but Hallelujah it rained today! Boy, did we need it. We've been going on no rain for a while and so today it finally came and I took advantage of the cooler weather. Hence dinner tonight being Baked Penne with Chicken & Mushrooms. Yes, I finally didn't wince at the thought of using my oven in my closet sized kitchen.

I love penne noodles. They are probably one of my top five fave noodles. Not sure why I just love 'em! This is super easy to make and my boys can't get enough of it. 

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter

1 pound penne 

2 boneless, chicken breast cut up into pieces

1/2 cup flour

4 cloves garlic

6 cups milk

10 oz white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin

1 1/2 shredded provolone cheese (6 oz)

1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

First preheat the oven to 400. Bring a pot of water to a boil to cook penne pasta. In the mean time thinly slice chicken breast into pieces. Heat a skillet to cook chicken until opaque. You are going to be putting the finished product into the oven so chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked. 

Then in a dutch oven or heavy pot (I used my cute vintage dutch oven) heat butter on the stove until melted. Then add the flour & garlic to the butter. Whisk it up. Then gradually add the milk while whisking it throughly. Bring this to a simmer; add mushrooms & chicken. Cook for about another minute. Off the heat stir in the provolone cheese and parmesan cheese. 

Lastly dump pasta into mixture and stir it up. Add your salt & pepper, uncovered and set in the oven for another 25 minutes until the top is bubbling golden goodness :) Let sit 5 minutes before you serve!

Happy day. Love dishes like this because it's big enough to serve for dinner and then have enough for the next day. Day old left overs are the best. This shall be my lunch for tomorrow. Try it out. What recipes are you cooking up lately?

Sebastian and I say Bon Appetite...

(ps. only four days until that boy turns 3!)

♥A.