Chicken Spaghetti - the healthy way

I don't always make big fattening meals even though my figure would indicate to the contrary!  I've been on so many diets that I've come up with some pretty healthy variations that still feed my desire for hearty Italian food.  This week I made one of them and here it is.  We call it simply Chicken Spaghetti.  It's so simple, it's almost embarrassing.

Ingredients:

1/2 box Spaghetti (I like the "Thin" spaghetti)

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 medium onion

fresh garlic

Real parmesan - shredded

2-3 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces

olive oil

Before I get into the instructions I need to take a diversion to talk about ingredients.  If you were my husband (who is my personal shopper :), you'd know how brand picky I am.  The reason I'm brand picky is about quality.  The quality of your ingredients will make all the difference in the result.  To that end, I will name brands that I have found are the best quality - at least the best available to me in a medium sized town.  There are times that I will take the hour trek up to the Twin Cities to be able to really buy the best stuff, but that's usually for really special occasions like the Italian Feasts that we have done annually for nearly a decade now.

Now onto the instructions. Start a pan of water to cook the spaghetti.  Once it's come to a boil, add salt (at least a teaspoon) to the boiling water, and then add the spaghetti.  The salt in the water is an important step. Your pasta will taste MUCH better if you salt the water.  But don't add the salt until the water is boiling, unless you like to ruin your pot!

While I'm onto pet peeves, here's another one: DO NOT add oil to the water.  I don't understand this concept and it's one of my major pet peeves.  Adding oil may help the pasta to not stick, but it also makes it so any sauces you put on it don't cling the way they should.  I was blown away when I saw a cooking show many years ago and a well respected chef said to put oil in the water to keep the pasta from sticking.  I thought he was CRAZY.  All you have to do to prevent sticking is to stir it several times in the first couple minutes. Ok, back to the instructions!

Dice the onions and sauté them in olive oil. Once they are becoming translucent add the chicken.

Once the chicken is all cooked up, add the can of diced tomatoes and crushed garlic.  I really like the Dei Fratelli brand tomatoes shown in the picture at the ingredients section, but it's best if you can find a brand that doesn't come pre-seasoned.  I know there's one that's something like Basil/Garlic/Peppers flavored...ICK. I mean, it's probably good in some dishes, but I don't like it in this dish.  But hey...maybe you will if you want to try it.  Just don't complain to me if it is gross.

And about the garlic. Don't add the garlic before this step or you'll probably burn it, and there's nothing worse than burned garlic! I like...scratch that...I LOVE garlic. I put four big cloves in this time, but you can put however much you like. But...I'm telling ya...the garlic makes this dish so be generous with it!

Mix it up and simmer this for a few minutes and then taste it to see if you need to add salt.  Add however much you want.

Drain the spaghetti and put it back into the pot you cooked it in.  Then pour the chicken mixture on the spaghetti and mix it all together.  As I'm mixing, I always add some fresh grated parmesan.  It's a low fat cheese that really adds a nice layer of flavor.

There you have it...low fat...relatively healthy...and SUPER tasty.

Salute!