RECIPE: Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine

You know that recipe you use, when you want to impress, but don’t feel like going to the store. The fail proof recipe, you forget about, then get a little excited about when you remember it. Well mine is this AMAZING recipe I got from Shandra at Deals to Meals! After the Seven Day Challenge, I went to town on restocking my food storage. It’s amazing, how you can get complacent and put off restocking, but thanks to Deals to Meals, I was able to restock my shelves and get great deals in the process! (to learn more about how we use this system, go to our Deals To Meals page)

Anyways, back to Shandra’s recipe I LOVE. This is copied from her blog, and for more pictures, visit her recipe post here. Let me clue you in on a couple secrets though – I am SO not the marinate ahead of time kind of gal. I have done this on the spot, without marinating and it’s still yummy (mind you marinating does make it taste better). I also swap out the noodles for whole wheat spaghetti noodles sometimes and it works great also! AND I have used lemon juice from a bottle, and dried parsley (again fresh is better, but hey- sometimes you need a meal in a pinch). Anyways, give this recipe a try – You’ll love it!

Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine
1 lb. linguine (or fettuccine)
2 T. olive oil
Zest from one lemon
Juice from one lemon
½ c. chopped green onion
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Parmesan cheese

Marinade:
½ c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, whole
2 T. Cajun seasoning
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. minced parsley
1 T. brown sugar (or more if you like it a little sweeter)
2 T. soy sauce
2 chicken breasts, sliced. (OR 16 extra large shrimp)

Combine the marinade ingredients in a Ziploc bag. Slice thawed chicken (or shrimp). Pat dry and toss in marinade to coat. Refrigerate 1-12 hours. Cook marinated chicken with the marinade sauce in a large saute pan on medium heat until chicken is cooked. If using shrimp, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Be sure not to over cook shrimp.

Cook linguini in boiling salted water until done; drain well and rinse noodles. Combine juice of one lemon, zest, olive oil, green onions, and fresh parsley together. Add hot pasta into bowl and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add chicken (or shrimp) with marinade into the large pasta bowl. Toss in parmesan cheese to taste and serve warm.