Garlic Pesto Chicken & Penne

From: plainchicken.com

I made this a little differently than the recipe. From the mouth of my husband, "this is better than a restaurant". Try it and see what you think!

1/2 bottle of Lawrys Herb and Garlic Marinade
2 lg spoonfuls of Pesto
2 boneless chicken breasts

Cut chicken into one inch strips. Using same knife make slits into chicken. Pour marinade and pesto over chicken. Marinate over night.

*I used cooked shredded chicken. I just poured the marinade and pesto over it and mixed it up and let it set for a few hours. I didn't use the 1/2 bottle of marinade either. I just eyeballed it and did what looked good.

Sauce:

8 oz of your choice of pasta (I used penne the first time and bowtie the second time)
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic (I just put some in, I always do more than called for)
2 spoonfuls of pesto
1/2 c. chicken broth
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 c. half and half (I used heavy cream)

Cook pasta to package directions.

Pour entire batch of chicken, marinade and all, into skillet and cook chicken fully (marinade will cook down)  *I just added my chicken to the sauce at the end and heated it through since it was already cooked.

Heat olive oil, cook garlic. Add pesto. Simmer in chicken broth until half has cooked down. Add tomato sauce. Then add milk. Simmer for 5 min. Toss in pasta. Add flour if it needs thickened. Place chicken on top. *Again, I mixed everything together

This was a huge hit at our house. My 5 year old was a little sad when there wasn't leftovers for him the next day. We used the extra sauce to dip our garlic bread in. We loved this so much that I took it to our friends who had a baby. Hope they liked it just as much.