Mexican-Style Pasta With Chicken and Peppers

"I just tried this yummy low calorie recipe. It was very quick and easy since I used leftover chicken. Taken from Time Life's Fast, Fresh and Delicious cookbook. After tasting it, I can guess that shredded cheese and red pepper flakes would also go very well with it. Hope you like it too!"
 
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photo by punkarooni photo by punkarooni
photo by punkarooni
Ready In:
35mins
Ingredients:
13
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken broth, garlic, cumin and chili powder to a boil over medium-high heat.
  • Meanwhile, coarsely chop the tomatoes, scallions and bell pepper. Break the vermicelli into 2-inch pieces.
  • Add the chicken to the boiling broth, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and set it aside to cool slightly.
  • In a large nonstick skillet, warm the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the vermicelli and cook, stirring, until the vermicelli is lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the broth mixture, tomatoes, scallions, bell pepper, green chilies and salt, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is cooked, about 7 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, shred the chicken. Mince the cilantro (if using).
  • Stir the shredded chicken and cilantro into the pasta mixture and serve hot.

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Reviews

  1. This was fabulous! I loved being able to make pasta without using a red or white sauce! I'd suggest simmering the pasta uncovered or you'll have a soup.
     
  2. Mine was really soupy and tomatoey. :(
     
  3. This was a burst of wonderful flavors all mingling together. I enjoyed it more the next day for lunch. The only reason for 4 stars is that I think it needs a full pound of chicken. I used rotel tomatoes, then didn't need to add the can of green chiles. I also added some fresh red peppers and mushrooms. So healthy and so good! Thanks!
     
  4. This was an excellent dish. The reason that I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 was because the recipe would not be as good without some necessary tweaking. Personally, I added 4 garlic cloves, 2tsp cumin, 2tsp chili pwdr, 1/2tsp chipotle pwdr, 1/2tsp ground pepper, and some lime juice, and topped it with shredded cheese... basically every recommendation from other reviewers and it turned out great.
     
  5. Made this and thought it was pretty good. I did add half a can of rotel for some heat and extra cumin and chili powder once everything was mixed together. Easy to make and a good lunch for the next day.
     
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Tweaks

  1. I am a vegetarian so I modified this recipe some, but I think overall it is fantastic. I added more spices as others suggested and made it with kidney beans instead of the chicken. What a great change to regular pasta dishes. Thanks!
     
  2. It was good. I doubled chili powder, cumin and garlic as advised by previous reviews plus I added red pepper flakes and more chili powder later. I just like it hot. And I used a can of rotel instead of tomatoes and green chilies to save a bit of money.
     
  3. This was well liked by my family. I used broth I had made from a rotisserie chicken and I used the leftover chicken from that same chicken. Following suggestions from others I used 2 cloves of garlic, 1.5 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp cardamom and 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed). I also used red pepper instead of green pepper.
     
  4. I just made this. It was awesome. My parents and husband loved it. Nice, fast, and easy. I did not have any cumin and doubed the chili powder, and it still tasted wonderful. I added a tabasco pepper instead of the mild chiles and american cheese. I also did not drain the canned tomatoes to make the dish a little soupier. Thanks!!
     
  5. We really enjoyed this recipe, but because we used cheese tortellini instead of vermicelli, we ended up with more of a soup than a pasta. We ended up multiplying the seasonings considerably, otherwise it would have been much too bland for our taste. I also added a can of rinsed black beans. We topped it off with a dollop of sour cream and enjoyed greatly. Some tortilla chips or corn bread would have complimented nicely.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

A friend recommended Recipezaar.com to me when I was searching for recipes that would be easy to freeze. I was about to have foot surgery and layed up for six weeks. That was extremely hard with three children, but I used several recipes and spent two weeks prior to surgery just cooking and cleaning. Those meals came in so handy!
 
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