This kid approved chicken and lemon pasta dinner is one of our staple 30 minute weeknight dinners!
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Give me alllll the 30 minute meals!
Getting through spring with kids in school feels like such a sprint! And in the case of my older 2 girls, this end of the school year track analogy is not lost on me! I have all the 30 minutes or less dinners on rotation repeat right now, and figured maybe some of you might be in the same boat. Once we get over that Spring Break hump, it feels like that finish line is right around the corner!
Looks fancy…secretly one of my easiest dinners!
Making something like a lemon pasta might sound fancy and restaurant-like, but this dinner prep couldn’t be easier. And, of course, because nourishing my kids is my number one goal, this dinner is not only very reliable in being easy and fast to make, it will also fill your kids up with real food that counts!
Let’s get the chicken in a lemon marinade first!
The chicken can marinade for 15 minutes while you chop broccoli and get pasta boiling. OR, you can set up your chicken in the marinade in the morning before everyone leaves for the day. This does make dinner go even faster when you get home, so if you work outside the home, or will be gone all day, consider this option! First, filet your chicken breast so it is thin. This makes the cooking process super easy, and makes very very flavorful chicken. Then, you can whisk the marinade ingredients in a container and place the chicken inside.
Next, let’s prepare the chicken to cook!
You have 2 choices here. I like to give the chicken a super thin, crispy coating to the outside. I use tapioca starch or cassava flour to do this. Simply pull the chicken out of the marinade using tongs, and dredge it in a dish with the flour. That’s it! Alternatively, you can skip this step if you want to, and just cook the chicken straight out of the marinade.
How to cook the crispy chicken
To cook the chicken, make sure you get your pan screaming hot first, and use both butter and oil to cook in for flavor and color. Place the dredged chicken into the hot pan and let it cook on both sides until golden and cooked through. Since we fileted the chicken, it should only take a few minutes on each side! I like to pull the cooked chicken over to a wire rack to rest so that it stays crispy on the bottom.
Now, for the lemon butter sauce!
This is the very quick and magical part that makes my kids, at least, absolutely swoon! Deglaze the pan with a little white wine (or broth, and scrape up all those crispy flavor bits. Add some garlic, lemon zest and juice, and then all the broccoli along with a little broth and steam the broccoli in the sauce for a few minutes. That is it!
But where’s the butter?!
Oh, my friends, I would never forget the butter! Once you steam the broccoli to your texture liking, add in the cooked pasta and a few tablespoons of butter to melt. You can toss the broccoli, pasta, and butter sauce all together.
It seems to simple!
That’s because sometimes the simplest of foods are the best! Let that lemon, garlic, and butter do all the talking. The kids will gobble this up, and you might even get some “ooo’s and ahh’s” over the flavor! My most opinionated foodie kid in the house says it wide-eyed every time I make it!
How to serve the lemon and chicken pasta dinner
Once you’ve tossed the pasta and broccoli, dinner is ready to serve. Since I have teenagers, I like to add the chicken back into the pan with garnishes of chopped parsley and lemon wedges, and serve the pan self-serve family style. You can serve your little ones sliced chicken with the pasta together or separated if they don’t like their chicken touching the pasta.
Don’t forget the leftovers!
I usually come out of this dinner with a serving left for one of the kids to take to school. If you have little ones at home, you may be lucky enough to have more leftover to use for your lunch, and the kids! I like to pack everything into a warmed up thermos, but 2 of my kids also like to take it cold like a pasta salad.
30 Minute Chicken & Lemon Pasta Dinner
Ingredients
For the Lemon Chicken Marinade:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- Juice of 1 to 1 1/2 lemons
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 3 chicken breasts filet each breast lengthwise into 2 pieces
For the Lemon Chicken Pasta Dinner:
- 1 tbsp olive oil & 1 tbsp butter to cook in
- 3/4 cup tapioca starch or cassava flour, or flour of choice for dredging the chicken. See Notes
- 1/3 cup white wine or broth
- 3-4 cloves of garlic minced
- Zest & Juice of 1 lemon
- 5 cups broccoli florets
- 1/2 cup bone broth or broth
- 3 tbsp butter
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 4-5 cooked rice ramen squares See Notes.
- Parsley and lemon wedges to garnish
Instructions
For the Lemon Chicken Marinade:
- Whisk the lemon marinade ingredients in a bowl or dish. Add the chicken to the marinade. The chicken should marinate for at least 15 minutes, while you chop broccoli and garlic, and prepare the rest of dinner.
For the Lemon Chicken Pasta Dinner:
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat until it is very hot.
- While the oil and butter are warming up, put the tapioca starch in a large dish. Use a tongs to pull the chicken out of the marinade and into the tapioca starch to dredge.
- Cook the dredged chicken in the hot oil and butter until crispy and cooked through. Since the chicken is fileted, it should only need a few minutes on each side. When the chicken is done cooking, set it aside on a cooling rack so it stays crispy. You can also sprinkle the tops with a little sea salt for flavor.
- Pour the wine into the bottom of the hot pan that you cooked the chicken in to deglaze the pan.
- Add a tablespoon more of olive oil, the garlic, lemon zest & juice, stir to combine, and cook for 1 minute. over medium heat.
- Add the broccoli and broth, stir to combine, and add a lid to the pan for 3 minutes to steam the broccoli.
- Drain the cooked rice ramen and toss it with the cooked lemon broccoli and 3 tablespoons of butter. Add the chicken back into the pan to serve, and garnish with chopped fresh parsley and lemon wedges.
Notes
- You could set up the chicken to marinate all day if you choose to set it up in the morning before you leave for the day. This does make the dinner go even faster when you get home!
- You can skip the tapioca starch or flour dredge if you want. This does give the chicken a super thin crispy outer coating that kids might really like! But it does work to cook the chicken without the coating too.
- I like using these rice ramen noodles for this recipe since it is like angel hair pasta, and also cooks super fast! You can use whatever pasta you have on hand though. You can boil the pasta while the chicken/broccoli is cooking.
