DARCI HANNAH: It’s fall y’all, and now that the days are getting shorter and the evenings are getting cooler, my dinner menus are shifting from salads and lighter meals to those heartier dinners that warm the belly. We love our comfort food in this family, particularly a good pasta dish. While spaghetti with a thick Bolognese meat sauce and plenty of garlic bread always goes over well with my hubby and sons, my favorite is a lighter sauce (not sure with all the cream in this sauce that it’s lighter!) with hints of garlic, fresh veggies, and chicken as the main protein. When I stumbled across this recipe for Tuscan Garlic Chicken and made it for my family, it was a hit! I think you’ll like it too. You can serve it over penne pasta, cavatappi pasta, or your favorite tortellini!
Delicious Tuscan Garlic Chicken
Prep time: 30 minutes. Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded to even thickness
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained (reserve 3 tablespoon for cooking)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated.
Salt and pepper to taste.
16 oz box of penne pasta, or your favorite tortellini (prepared according to package)
Directions:
Cook your tortellini or penne pasta according to package and set aside.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet and cook chicken over medium heat until done, about 5 minutes a side. Transfer to a plate to let cool.
In the same skillet add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the sliced mushrooms until golden brown. Add the minced garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes to the pan. Sauté for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant and the tomatoes have softened. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and cook for 3 minutes to reduce the liquid. Reduce heat and add the heavy cream.
While the sauce is thickening, cube the cooked chicken. Once the cream sauce has thickened, add the chicken back to the skillet. Next, add the grated Parmesan cheese. Let simmer while stirring occasionally until the cheese has melted and the sauce has thickened.
The dish is ready to serve. At this point you can either pour it over your cooked pasta, or you can add your cooked pasta to the pan and heat it through for a few minutes. Garnish with extra grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
You can print a copy of the recipe here!
What is your favorite pasta dish?
Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the Food & Spirits Mystery Series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction, The Exile of Sara Stevenson, and The Angel of Blythe Hall. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.
Connect with Darci at www.darcihannah.com
Instagram: @authordarcihannah
Facebook: @Author Darci Hannah
Murder at the Campfire Cookout
By Darci Hannah
Book #7 in the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series
When Lindsey Bakewell leaves behind her lighthouse bakeshop, her boyfriend, Rory, and her Newfoundland dog, Wellington, for a glamping trip with her mother in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the bears leave them alone—but a killer doesn’t. . .
Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery is as adventurous as Lindsey cares to get. Her mother, Ellie, a former 80s fashion model, likes her creature comforts even more—until she sees a business opportunity for her Beacon Harbor fashion boutique when she’s invited by the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club on a woodsy getaway.
Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers. Ellie insists Lindsey come along to win the campfire cookout contest. Campfire cooking has come a long way from bacon and beans. Soon Lindsey is making pizza, berry cobbler, and gooey Carmelita camping bars.
But the festive spirit is soon dampened when a body is found in Ellie’s camper. It seems like an accidental death until everyone’s tires are slashed and it’s clear the glampsite has become a crime scene. With no cell service to call for help, it’s up to Lindsey to smoke out the killer around the campfire . . .
Because no one is out of the woods yet.
A SPIRITED SUPPER AT DUNDOON CASTLE
By Darci Hannah
Book #2 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
When chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride got a role on the reality show Food & Spirits, she thought “spirits” meant cocktails. Instead, she’s cooking up dinners meant to tempt the departed to appear. And to her surprise, she’s discovered abilities to connect with the beyond—and crack murder cases . . .
Now that Bunny’s entrées come with a side of the Other Side, it comes in handy to have a grandma who’s friendly with the elderly owners of a haunted Scottish castle. During Bunny’s childhood she heard all about Dundoon’s bloody history and the “ghostly piper” who roamed the grounds—and soon she’ll be visiting the ancient place with her ghost hunter and psychic co-stars. The annual bagpipe competition in the late piper’s honor will make for some good footage as well.
After Bunny serves a feast fit for a 17th century king, including lamb chops with plenty of fresh herbs, she heads outdoors for the ghost hunt. But in the dark, dense fog, someone fatally plunges from the clifftop over the loch. The sound that follows is a mournful, otherworldly bagpipe . . . and once the body of another perished piper is retrieved, Bunny is determined to solve this Highlands homicide—and prevent a killer from getting off scot-free . . .
COMING FEBRUARY 23, 2027
A TOAST TO AGATHA CHRISTIE’S GHOST
By Darci Hannah
Book #3 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
Chef Bunny MacBride has gotten roped into a ghost-hunting reality show called Food & Spirits, creating dishes to whet the appetites of apparitions. Along the way, she’s discovered she has some supernatural gifts of her own—and an eerie knack for solving murders…
The cast and crew are on Burgh Island, at a restored Art Deco hotel that boasts Agatha Christie as its most famous guest—and now its most famous ghost. They’re filming at a murder-mystery weekend, and Bunny expects it to be more kooky than spooky. But she’s excited to meet the renowned resident chef and delighted to run into her Granny Mac playing the role of Miss Marple. As a bonus, her romance with costar Brett continues to simmer.
The downside is dealing with arrogant guests like Buckley Thorne, who sends back her beetroot salad and demands whipped cream for her peach Melba. Then the show’s phony psychic, Giff, insists on playing Poirot, complete with an absurdly bad accent. When it turns out the victim role is assigned to Buckley Thorne, she feels a touch of satisfaction—until she realizes he’s doing too good a job of playing dead . . .
Shocked to learn Buckley’s true identity, Bunny has to change course once again from cook to crime-solver. She’d sensed an undercurrent of drama at the dead man’s table—and with help from the spirit of the world’s greatest mystery writer, she’s looking closely at the victim’s handsome son, much-younger wife, and elegant circle of friends to conjure up a solution . . .
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