Chicken Bacon Pasta

While putting together my weekly dinner menu, I try to incorporate dishes that are at least somewhat healthy. But then I run across a recipe that blows all those good intentions right out the window. Such was the case for this recipe (The Recipe Critic).

Seriously, who could pass up the opportunity to pair bacon with pasta, smothered in a cream sauce? Not me. 

First off, I fried up some bacon.

While that was cooking, I combined the ingredients for the dry rub that got put on the chicken breasts. Just a quick note -- I substituted thyme for the sage called for in the recipe.

When the bacon was done, I put the strips on paper towels to drain and to be crumbled later.  Some of the bacon fat was taken out of the pan, and the chicken breasts went in to saute for about 5 minutes on each side.

In the meantime, I made the cream sauce that included heavy cream, cream cheese, parmesan, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Swoon.

The pasta got cooked and was added to the cream sauce. Another quick note -- the recipe called for the pasta to be rinsed with hot water. I don't rinse pasta, unless it will be used for something like a pasta salad. As a result, I skipped this step.

Time to bring all the pieces and parts to the plate.

Will it come as any surprise that we thought this was divine? No, didn't think so. The dry rub on the chicken brought some lovely savory and sweet notes to the dish, and the cream sauce was truly wonderful. I will say it was just a tad bit salty, but that was my error, not the recipe.

While clearly not a dish I will make on a regular basis, this is sinfully decadent for those times you want to treat yourself.