Sundried Tomato & Chicken Pasta

• 6 tablespoons butter, plus more for baking dishes
• salt and black pepper
• 1/2 pound penne rigate (or macaroni noodles or spirals or whatever you like)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 8 ounces each), halved horizontally (I used some leftover cooked chicken)
• 1/2 c sun dried tomatoes (more if you like more)
• Diced fresh spinach (optional)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 Tbs. butter or margarine
• ¼ C cornstarch
• 2 tsps chicken bullion (I use “Better Than Boullion”)
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced (or 1 tsp Garlic powder)
• 1/2 cup sliced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup shredded provolone (6 ounces) (or an italian blend or mozarella)
• ½ cup grated Parmesan (fresh is delicious but dried works as well)

1. Preheat oven to 400. Butter 1 shallow 2-quart baking dish (I use a glass 9x13 pan.) In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente (see instructions on the box); drain pasta and set aside.
2. While pasta is boiling, get another pot of water & add 1 T “Better Than Boullion”, dash of salt & pepper and  1 or 2 chicken breasts (or thighs) to it and turn to high & let it boil until the chicken is no longer pink.  Drain & cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  (I usually do several breasts/thighs at once & save the extra in the freezer in a zip loc freezer bag and then you can skip this step & just pull out a bag, defrost it in the microwave while you’re boiling the noodles & use it.)
3. Combine milk, butter, corn starch, Better Than Boullion & pepper in a sauce pan and turn to muedium heat while whisking.  Keep whisking frequently as sauce thickens.  Add the sun dried tomatoes, spinach & chicken; cook 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat and and gradually stir in provolone and 1/2 cup Parmesan.
4. Add sauce to the pasta; season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into your baking dish.  Sprinkle extra parmesan on top.
5. Bake, uncovered, until top is golden and bubbling, about 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Freezer instructions:

To freeze, prepare through step 4 and then let pasta cool.  Cover pan well with plastic wrap.  Place extra cheese in baggie (for topping) on top and then cover entire pan well with foil.  Freeze for up to 3 months.  To bake, preheat oven to 400.  Remove foil and plastic from pan and set cheese baggie aside.  Place foil back on pan and bake for about 1 1/2 hours.  Remove foil, stir pasta, and top with cheese.  Return pan to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes (I only did 10 minutes)  or until mixture is hot and bubbly throughout.

Recipe inspired from http://sulia.com/channel/recipes-cooking/f/756cdb41-fb0d-4ffd-bad1-fa472f552a3c/