I thought that since we are right in the middle of basil season that I should post a recipe that uses fresh basil. I made this precisely because I look for ways to use my basil during the summer months. I just love the flavor it gives and it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to easily cook with basil. I have it growing in a big pot on my back deck, so it’s about 10 steps away from the kitchen. Perfect! This dish an also use fresh or canned tomatoes, so that’s another reason to make it in the summer.

I feel like basil is really easy to grow. It loves the sun and seems to tolerate some drought as well. So if it doesn’t rain and I forget to water it, we’re still ok ;). Actually I never understand why basil is so expensive in the grocery store, it grows like crazy and easily, in my opinion. On the other hand, I have planted cilantro several times and it always dies! What am I doing wrong?! And for some reason cilantro is really inexpensive all year round in the grocery store. This is a mystery I’d like to understand. If anyone can enlighten me, I’m all ears.

The recipe today is pretty simple and really delicious. Mr. Chaos told me last night he would pay for it in a restaurant. Wow. Let me explain that I don’t get compliments like that at every meal, lest you think Mr. Chaos throws around abundant compliments 🙂  So I need to remember he really liked this dish so I make it again before a year goes by. I also hope that compliment hasn’t given you false expectations of this dish! It IS really good. It is also better the second day because the basil flavor really gets through the sauce. I also didn’t add any salt to the sauce and we just added salt at the table. The recipe doesn’t call for any, so if it needs something, that might be it.

As usual, I doubled this, which I do for almost every dinnertime meal I make. It just cuts down on the amount of times I have to cook! And of course during the summer there is always something going on and having dinner already prepared is a nice treat!

Basil Tomato Cream Sauce and Pasta

1 – 2 pounds of cooked chicken pieces (or in whatever form you’d like!)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh basil, minced

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Pour chicken broth into large skillet or sauce pan, bring to boil over medium heat. Stir in cream and tomatoes, boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat and add basil, Parmesan cheese, and pepper. Cook and stir until heated through (mine wasn’t very thick). Add the chicken into the sauce and cook until heated. Serve over pasta or rice. You can also serve the sauce over chicken thighs or larger pieces.