Chicken Penne with Asparagus, Sun-dried Tomatoes, and Artichoke Hearts

Hello!
Tonight we will be addressing my love hate relationship with the rotisserie chicken. I love the fact that they are already cooked, ready to go, but I hate that it is a crap shoot whether you get a nice juicy one or one that has been cooked into jerky. This is an excellent staple for those nights when a recipe calls for cooked chicken and you just don't feel like or have time for those extra 30 minutes. Today was one of those days when I was mentally exhausted but still wanted to make something delicious and relatively healthy for dinner.
 I was fairly lucky tonight with my choice, but still had to trim off  dried chunks of the legs and part of the breasts, but I still had plenty for the meal. First I'm just going to post some pictures of how I cut apart the chicken just in case you've never disassembled one. A little known fact about me is I worked for a summer at a chicken processing plant when I thought I was going to be a monogastric nutritionist (chickens, dogs, cats, horses, anything with a single stomach is monogastric) so I did a summer internship with Tyson Foods. This was a great experience for me because I got to see every aspect of the industry from the hatchery, to the barns, to the slaughter facility and even to the further processing (i.e. those yummy chicken tenders). I also learned during this time how to remove the crucial cuts of meat from the bird and when to chuck all that and just pick a carcass clean. Today's lesson is more along the lines of the latter :-)
Since these pictures are not the prettiest, I'll start with a picture of the finished product

Chicken Penne with Asparagus, Sun-dried Tomatoes, and Artichoke Hearts

But before I get too far in, here is the link to the original recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-penne-with-asparagus-sun-dried-tomatoes-and-artichoke-hearts/

Here is my how to rip apart a chicken in pictures:

I start by taking the legs off. These are usually the pieces that have been over cooked the most, so only take the moist meat off and keep it. The rest you can either snack on or feed to your 4 legged garbage disposals. Thighs usually come next but I didn't take a picture of that, sorry!

Next I remove the skin. Note the leg is still on but that's because Matt was taking pictures and the dogs were doing the wee wee dance so I just wanted to get through as soon as possible

Skin-less breasts! I am running my finger along the breast bone to separate it from the breast meat. If you do this right, you can pull the whole breast off in one piece. Since this will be shredded, I didn't worry about that too much.

Pectoralis major is off (breast) and now for pectoralis minor (or chicken tender)

This is a bit harder to separate, so I used my handy dandy knife to release the meat from the cartilage

Easier said than done! Pieces came out, but that's OK I needed to shred it anyways

Picking the last part of the left side. Not much meat left

Fully picked carcass! Not much meat left on this one at all, sorry if it looks yucky, but if you don't want to ditch this, you can put it in a pot of water (just so its submerged) and cook it to make chicken stock. This will give you the most bang for your buck buck (haha!)

Look at all that great meat! Now I just need to set it aside and proceed to the recipe

 

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package uncooked penne pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (or I just used the meat from the whole chicken)
salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons minced garlic (I used 2 frozen cubes)
1 small onion, diced
1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
3 ounces chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
2/3 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese  

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a rolling boil. Cook the penne pasta uncovered in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 11 minutes. Drain, set aside, and keep warm.  

Dice the onion and chop up the asparagus 

Make due with what you have. I didn't have a small onion so I just used half of a larger one

Things are getting dicey here!

Asparagus!

Chopping asparagus!

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; Cook the garlic and onion in the oil until the onion becomes translucent, about 3 minutes. 

Diced onions with 2 cubes of frozen minced garlic

Stir in the asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and beef broth; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until the asparagus is bright green and starting to become tender, about 5 minutes. 

Added asparagus & sun-dried tomatoes and beef broth. and letting them cook

Cooked! Yum yum & so colorful!

Add the chicken to the skillet and stir in the artichoke hearts. Cook and stir until hot, about 3 minutes. 

How convenient! They come quartered!

Chicken added to the veggies and the artichoke hearts

Gently fold the pasta into the chicken and vegetables, cover the skillet, and turn off the heat. 
 Allow the mixture to sit until the pasta has absorbed any excess broth, about 5 minutes. 

This is where I said, "Oh rats, I think I need a bigger skillet," though I'm pretty sure I didn't say Oh rats at first. If you over fill, just be really careful when you stir. Its do-able, just be gentle

Mix butter into the pasta mixture until butter melts and coats the pasta; 

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.  

All in all I'm pretty sure I accidentally made enough for 6-8 servings so we'll be having left overs for a while. It was really good, and although it had olive oil and butter in it (2 tbs of each) it still tasted fairly light. you could probably eat it cold the next day and it be just as good. You could also add oregano or basil to it for an extra boost of flavor if you'd like, but I was very happy the way it was which is good because I have a whole lot of it in my fridge.

Let me know what you think when you try it or if you have a variation you liked.

Happy eating!