Creamy Chicken, Bacon, and Tomato Pasta

Hubby and I are still staying with family for the time being, though we’ve signed a lease and expect to move soon. I’m still trying to alleviate the inconvenience of having us by making dinner when I can.

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a while but hadn’t gotten around to trying it. It’s actually fairly similar to Philly Shrimp, which is cool.

First, I got out some tri-colored farfalle pasta. I started to measure out the three cups that the recipe called for, but then I thought, “Screw that,” and dumped the whole box into boiling water.

Next, I cut up some chicken breasts. I used about twice as many as the recipe called for.

I also seasoned them with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder, and a touch of onion powder just for fun. This wasn’t part of the original recipe, but reviewers thought it should be.

Put it into a big skilled and start frying it up.

Meanwhile, I started prepping the rest of my ingredients. I love being back in an area where we have Wegman’s! I opened one can of Italian-style diced tomatoes, as the recipe called for, but then immediately decided that since I’d already doubled the chicken and put in more pasta than I needed, I might as well double everything.

So I opened another can.

Then I gave my niece a piece of farfalle pasta, which had been cooked and drained by this point. She wasn’t sure what to think of it.

But she liked the camera.

Anyway, once the chicken was about done, I transferred it to a saucepan so I’d have room to add more stuff. I added those diced tomatoes first.

And then a brick of cream cheese (my favorite ingredient!).

The recipe called for a bit of water to be added, but I used chicken broth instead.

Once it started melting and mixing, it looked more like this.

It got creamier as the cheese continued to melt. I also noticed that the sauce was a bit watery and mixed up some corn starch in water to thicken it up.

Also, I just realized that I have no photo evidence of the bacon that I fried up, crumbled, and mixed in. It’s there, I promise, I’m just dumb and forgot to take pictures.

It was too much pasta for one serving dish, so here’s about half of the yield.

And served on a plate:

Creamy and with a deeper taste than I’d anticipated. I liked the smoky flavor of the bacon combined with the tomato. Personally, I could do without the chicken, but I know a lot of people would disagree.

Regardless, delicious. And the leftovers were just wonderful.