Pesto Chicken Capellini with Shiitakes is my re-creation of another restaurant dish from long ago…
I was living in a modest stone Tudor in Mt. Lebanon, a leafy suburb south of Pittsburgh, and my boyfriend and I ate out more evenings than not. It was an easy life.
One of my favorite places was an Italian restaurant on Washington Road, with red checkered tablecloths on the tables outside in front of the restaurant, and crisp white linens on the tables in the dining room. Everything on the menu was fantastic, but I ordered this dish every time. It was that good. The restaurant is no longer there, so there’s no possibility of revisiting the experience, but the memory is vivid enough that it prompted me to do what I do – try to reverse engineer one of my favorite restaurant dishes so that I can enjoy it at home, and share it with you, of course.
After some trial and error, I can say with confidence, this recipe for Pesto Chicken Capellini with Shiitakes is as good as I remember! The secret is that each element of the dish is cooked separately and then assembled. This makes so much sense in a restaurant kitchen because the mushrooms and pesto are prepared in advance, and when an order comes in, they simply sear the chicken thigh pieces and drop the pasta. Capellini cooks almost instantly, making this a quick and easy dish to prepare. Yet it lands so elegantly on the plate.
I take a similar approach in my kitchen, cooking the mushrooms first, setting them aside, then cooking the chicken in the same pan while the pasta water comes to a boil. The pesto is from my garden. It couldn’t be easier.
However, I haven’t yet mastered the plating. I’ve tossed the pasta with the pesto and then stirred in the chicken and mushrooms, but the results were anything but appealing. I’ve tossed the chicken with the pesto before plating over the pasta, but the result was similar – a mess that just didn’t entice my to take that first bite. So I’ve opted for layering on the plate. It’s so beautiful. And it tastes so divine that it doesn’t matter that the visual appeal is lost after your first bite. It’s the brightness of the pesto, the silky earthiness of the shiitakes, the crispy chicken bites, and the delicate capellini that make this dish so memorable.
Pesto Chicken Capellini with Shiitakes
Ingredients
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 12 ounces shiitake mushrooms
- olive oil cooking spray
- 1 t salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 T cornstarch
- 12 ounces jovial gluten-free capellini
- ½ pint basil pesto
Instructions
- Mise en place – Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Destem and slice the mushrooms.
- Cook the mushrooms – Add the mushrooms and a bit of salt to a dry pan over medium heat. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have expelled all of their water, then continue until the water has cooked off. Set the mushrooms aside and remove the pan from the heat.
- Prep and cook the chicken – Put the pasta water on to boil. Generously salt the chicken and spray it with cooking spray. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Save the yolks for some other purpose. Whisk the egg whites with the cornstarch until there are no lumps, then pour over the chicken pieces, tossing to coat. Sauté the chicken in the same pan that you used for the mushrooms. Sauté in batches until crispy and cooked through. Stash in a warming oven until you're ready to assemble the dish.
- Boil the pasta – Once the water has come to a rolling boil, season the pasta water and cook the capellini according to the package directions. Drain the pasta.
- Assemble and plate – Toss the pasta with mushrooms and fill individual serving bowls. Top with the crispy chicken and a generous dollop of pesto.
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