Garlic and Lemon Peppercorn Chicken with Pasta

As I sit here at my desk, sweating, I can't help but wonder if I went overboard on this pasta. Granted, it's not exactly chilly out, so maybe my sweating can be partly attributed to the weather, but the peppercorn pieces in this pasta are huge!

Last night for dinner I used some of Joe's pre-packaged marinade and tried to get creative. Basically I needed to use up the chicken and had the garlic peppercorn marinade packet on hand, but didn't want to just have chicken and rice. I decided to use half of the marinade as directed and to use the other half as a pasta dressing. The directions called for 1/4 c. oil, 1/4 c. water, and 2 Tbsp. of red wine vinegar. I had the Tbsp, but am staying at my boss's place and couldn't immediately locate the measuring cups, so I eyeballed it. In hindsight, I didn't use enough water and oil for the marinade. To the second half I reserved for the pasta, I added lemon juice, lemon zest, and some Parmesan cheese.

After letting the chicken marinate in the fridge for 20 minutes, I put it in a pan with a little more olive oil and cooked it while my pasta boiled. Not using enough water and oil meant that the marinade kind of stuck to the chicken. I tossed the pasta with the leftover marinade, lemon juice and zest, and Parmesan cheese then added the chicken. What I can say is that the pasta is great! The chicken is a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, the flavors are fantastic, it's just really spicy (and this is coming from someone who loves spicy food). There's just something a little "off" about it. I'll definitely try it again, probably with quite a bit more water so as to just marinate the chicken rather than basically using it as a spice rub. I'll also add lemon juice to the marinade and not just the pasta dressing, because it tastes fabulous with the garlic and peppercorn.

Despite the heat, it was good last night and even better today for lunch. This means I'll probably also let the pasta sit in the dressing for a bit longer next time to soak up some of the flavors, especially the lemon.

Overall not a complete failure, but definitely needs some tweaks!