Sauteed Chicken & Mushroom Penne

When I am in the kitchen cooking, I make an absolute mess. Did you ever see that episode of Modern Family, when Cam destroys the kitchen making breakfast and then leaves for the day hoping that Mitchell will clean it up for him? Yeah, that's kind of like me. Fortunately 99% of the time, my husband does clean it up for me. So when I have a meal like this which is only two pots/pans it makes clean up so much easier. This started out as another great recipe of my mother's and I added the chicken to it to make it a complete meal.

Sautéed Chicken & Mushroom Penne

Ingredients
1 pound penne pasta
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 pint sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 pint sliced mushrooms
1 - 2 cloves fresh crushed garlic
extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Directions
1. Pound chicken until its about 1/4 inch thick and slice into bite size pieces.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions or to your desired texture.
3. Coat a large sauté pan with olive oil and warm over medium-low heat. Add crushed garlic and stir. If you want a lighter garlic flavor than just use 1 clove. If you like the garlic to be stronger, use more. I probably use 1.5 to 2 cloves.
4. Cook garlic for about a minute and then add chicken. Continue to stir to cook all sides.
5. Once chicken starts to whiten on all sides, add in mushrooms. I prefer to buy the pre-sliced, pre-washed mushrooms to make it easier on myself. I also add more olive oil now so that everything is coated.
6. Continue to cook over medium heat until chicken and mushrooms are fully cooked. Add salt to taste.
7. Drain pasta and return to pot. Pour chicken and mushroom mixture over pasta and mix together.
8. Serve with fresh grated cheese.