This recipe was inspired when the world was going crazy for the Baked Feta Pasta on Tik Tok. With a block of feta cheese in it, it surely was not something I was going to try to make. But the summer of 2021 has been exceptionally generous when it comes to tomatoes in our garden. So, as I sat with my morning cup of coffee staring at pints and pints of yellow cherry tomatoes from our garden, scrolling through social media where my friends were posting about this crazy delicious and easy pasta recipe from TikTok, I decided to modify it to fit my low fat nutrition choices. In this recipe, I don’t use feta cheese and the dish is cooked on the stove top, not baked. So, end of the day, it is nothing like the TikTok pasta but it is low fat and delicious enough for it to have been part of our regular weekly meal rotation for some time now. I use grilled chicken breast in this recipe but it can easily be substituted with 2 servings of this Roasted Chicken Breast for Meal Prep.
Fat-free Grilled Chicken TikTok Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb Pasta shells or any other type of pasta you like
- 1 cp Pasta water saved after cooking pasta
- 2 Large garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 pints Cherry tomatoes yellow or red
- 8 oz Portabella mushrooms optional
- ¼ cup Cooking white wine
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 8 oz Fat-free cream cheese
- 8 oz Grilled chicken breast chopped into ½" cubes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp Fresh basil julienned or chopped
Instructions
- Cook pasta al dente per box instructions. Before pouring the pasta into a strainer, remove 1 cup of pasta water from the pot and set it aside. Then, strain pasta and set it aside.
- Heat a large pot and dry roast the chopped garlic.
- Once the garlic starts to lightly brown and give out its aroma, add mushrooms (if using) and tomatoes. Cover and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, gently smashing tomatoes, until mushrooms are tender and all of the tomatoes have burst.
- Add the cooking wine and lemon juice to the pot and just as the wine starts to bubble, add the block of cream cheese. Cover and let the cheese melt for 2-3 minutes over medium-low heat.
- Once the cheese seems to be melting, uncover and smash the cheese and mix it with the tomatoes and mushrooms until all the cheese has melted.
- Add the reserved pasta water and mix to form a creamy sauce.
- Add the grilled chicken and coat.
- Add the cooked pasta and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until pasta is coated with sauce. Cover and heat the whole lot together for 3-4 minutes on low heat.
- Garnish with fresh basil and some black pepper. Serve.
