Mushroom Pasta Gravy Chicken

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• Campbell's™ Chicken Gravy in a pop-top can
• Great Value™ chopped garlic
• Italian Seasoning [herbs]
• Kroger brand tomato paste
• Aquafina water
• Walmart frozen chicken breasts
• Brummel & Brown™ yogurt/vegetable oil spread

Process:

1. First the sauce:

   1. in a skillet, brown garlic in olive oil
   2. add herbs to olive oil while
   3. put olive oil/garlic/herb mixture in into a saucepan with tomato paste, gravy, and water to form the sauce(half liter of water for one small can of tomato paste)
   4. heat sauce in the saucepan and reduce to a simmer
   5. set this aside [perhaps on a very low heat] until the chicken and pasta are ready.

2. Cooking the chicken breast:

   1. Fortunately, we thought ahead and thawed the chicken breast while we were making the sauce.
   2. Use the same skillet as the herbs started out in - add more olive oil and heat it up to frying temp for the chicken.
   3. Add more chopped garlic.
   4. Cook the chicken in garlic and olive oil.

3. Cook the pasta:

   1. Boil water in a very large pot
   2. Add the pasta to the boiling water
   3. Drain water from the pasta
   4. Add olive oil and garlic from the chicken frying phase of the operation to the pasta and stir.

4. Serve with grated cheese(s), garlic toast, and salad greens.

Notes:

"But what about the organic, instantly hydrating shitake mushrooms that come in the plastic jar?" you ask, "wouldn't those go well in this dish?"

Well Right you are - the problem is this: Do the mushrooms go best in the tomato-based sauce, sauteed in the olive oil and garlic alongside the chicken breast, or [perhaps ultimately] both?

Well, that sort of a decision is probably best left to the individual, as is the extremely delicate decision of just what kind of pasta you might want to use for this. And for that matter, [exactly] which herbs.

We just used what pasta and herbs we had on hand, and my personal preference is to brown the mushrooms with the chicken, but I would not try to influence anyone else in that...

Note that a lot of variations are possible on the basic sauce recipe, as there are with e.g. choice of pasta, choice of meat, and cooking of any and all of it. We did this in 3 pans on a single burner using ingredients we had in stock, so we're making no claims about the relative superiority it over any other body's favorite sauce recipe, pasta variety, or chicken. Like the rest of the stuff here, this is just simple, relatively cheap, and easy to make without access to a fully equipped kitchen.

Utensils:

• Big pot [stainless soup pot - picked it up at a Big Lots or some grocery store in Michigan - don't recall - these are very standard - something like 8 quarts or better] estimated cost $10 to $15, max - less if you can get it at Salvation Army, Goodwill, or you neighborhood thrift store - we do reccommend stainless, though, over the aluminum ones you can steal from out behind some restaurants and clean the grease out of...
• Skillet - the one we used is a 12" or 14" glass one - Pyrex™ or Corningware™ or something - not sure where it came from or what it costs
• Sauce pan - 2 or 3 quart stainless from Walmart - about $15 to $20, depending if it's "on sale" or not - we do not recommend using any of the new-fangled "non-stick" cookware - Teflon™ fumes have been known to kill parrots, and the things never last a year around here without the "non-stick" coating getting damaged and becoming worse than useless - and that includes the so-called "tough", "indestructible", and otherwise hyped non-stick stuff...
• Chopsticks - est. $1.29
• Knife - est $5 [folding pocket knife]
• Big stainless spoon with holes in it - est $2.00
• large stainless steel soup ladle - same as spoon, above
• Colander [plastic works for this if that's all you've got - could probably do this without a colander, but they do make the pasta nicely un-soggy]
• Plates, bowls, forks