pasta alfredo style with roasted garlic and chicken

Roasted Garlic Chicken Alfredo

Serves 4.  A 488 calorie winner from the Jan./Feb. 2015 issue of Cooking Light magazine.  Start the pasta water to boil when you start cooking the chicken.  The sauce will finish cooking while the pasta boils. 

            1 whole head of garlic, top cut off, papery skin removed

            1 tsp. olive oil

            8 oz. spaghetti

            4 (4-oz.) skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets cut

               lengthwise to form 8 (2-oz.) cutlets

            salt and pepper

            1 Tbs. butter

            1 Tbs. flour

            1 c. low fat milk

            ½ c. chicken broth

            ½ c. frozen peas, thawed

            ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

            dash ground red pepper

            ½ c. fresh grated Parmesan cheese

            ¼ c. chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Rub cut side of garlic head with oil (discard top, leave the entire head whole).  Wrap garlic in foil.  Bake 55 minutes or until tender; cool slightly.  Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp.  Discard skins.  Place garlic pulp in a bowl; mash with a fork. 

Set a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper.  Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done.  Remove chicken from pan.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add butter to pan; swirl until butter melts.  Add flour, cook 15 seconds, stirring constantly.  Stir in garlic pulp, milk and chicken broth; bring to a boil.  Cook 3 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Stir in peas; cook 1 minute.  Remove pan from heat; stir in nutmeg, ground red pepper, and Parmesan cheese. 

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in pot of boiling salted water.  Drain.  Add cooked pasta to pan with sauce; toss to coat.  Sprinkle with parsley, serve with chicken on top.