Chicken & Pasta in a Lemon-Basil Sauce

One word describes this dish...bright! It has such a unique flavor that you never find in a pasta sauce but it's really delicious. I recently got hooked on using pinterest.com which has become another recipe resource for me! I stumbled across this dish and it just looked so wonderful I had to test it out! The only alteration that I've made to the recipe from its original version was to cut the amount of lemon juice in the sauce to half of what it had asked for. But overall this dish is super easy, quick, and delicious! Here's the recipe:

Take about a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and pound them out to equal thickness. In a medium sized bowl combine the juice of 4 lemons, 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp of honey, 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper, and  3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well then marinate the chicken breasts in it for 4-6 hours. Once the chicken breasts are finished marinating, heat up the grill and cook on medium-high heat until cooked through. While the chicken is cooking, boil up penne pasta ( I like to use Schar's G.F. Penne) in well salted water. Drain the pasta but make sure to save a cup or two of the pasta water in a small bowl. In the same pot that you cooked up the pasta in, melt 1/2 stick of butter and add the juice of 1 lemon (be careful not to have the pan/mixture too hot here otherwise you'll curdle the dairy that you have to add in the next step!). While stirring, add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/2 cup of half and half. When the mixture is heated through, add 1 and 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese. Continue stirring the mixture until the cheese has fully melted. Add your pasta back into the pot and mix with the sauce. If the sauce is too gooey, add some of the pasta water you put aside and stir together. Repeat this until you reach the right consistency! Add in about 12 leaves worth of freshly chopped basil and stir into the pasta. Plate the pasta and slice the cooked chicken over the top.

ENJOY!