How can you make a pasta and chicken meal with flavour, as both on their own are quite bland.

Ideas please.

Its for a meal to take to work.

Plain pasta is quite bland, nothing bland about chicken. What sort of chicken are you using? Breast or thigh? Free range?

Normally diced chicken from Morrisons.

You could make some bread crumbs, buy some italian cheese, some tomatoes and a aubergine and make a lovely layered dish with a cheese sauce made from a roux.

A few tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce mixed with some whipping cream then stirred through the pasta fairly spices it up a bit, or smoked chiken mixed with boursin and herbs and added to pasta is tasty too.

Spread mustard (i use Dijon) over the chicken before cooking. Add olives, chilli flakes or sun dried tomatoes to your meal. I'm not sure if you are already using a pasta sauce - either homemade or shop bought? If so, your meal shouldn't be that bland. Fresh basil is great, but quite expensive, unless you grow your own.

Pesto makes a nice change from tomato based sauces.

We do it it with half fat creme fraiche and bacon

Fry off onions , leek, garlic il golden, add bacon (chopped or lardons) fry til golden brown. this really brings out the flavour. Add the chiken & some chestnut mushrooms and fry til cooked -thigh has better flavour than breast. Add creme fraiche, lots of seasoning ( not too much salt because of the bacon), parlsey and tarragon. Meanwhile cook the pasta and drain. toss the pasta witht he sauce and serve with garlic bread. Takes about 15mins and the family love it.

Bit of pesto or boursin mixed in also work work well.

Or we do chicken Milanese

Get the quick cook thinly sliced chicken breastsfrom sainsburys. Coat with egg and breadcrumbs ( with herbs and a bit of grated parmesan mixed in), fry and serve with cooked spaghetti tossed in a light tomatos sauce - i just fry off garlic and add chopped tinned tomatoes and lots of oregano, salt and pepper

Thanks, keep em coming....

pesto and roasted veg!

Or chicken leek and mushroom in a mustard sauce?

Fry some slices of chorizo in a dry pan until they release their oil, remove chorizo from the pan. Brown some diced chicken in the chorizo fat, add a tin of tomatoes, some finely chopped chilli, a splash of red wine and return the chorizo to the pan. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, add some fresh basil. Serve with pasta and some freshly grated parmesan.

Wow, there are some really talented people in this thread.

Some of these ideas are making me my mouth water so much I want to rush home and buy some chicken and pasta!

salt, vinegar/lemon, chilli/hot sauce

Creme fraiche and pesto mixed up with pasta and chicken is delicious hot or cold.

There's two I like and make quite regularly.

1) Cook your pasta as normal. Meanwhile fry/grill your chicken and then mix it up with pesto and sliced sundried tomatoes and chilli (optional). I fry my chicken using some of the oil from the tomatoes. Simple, but really tasty.

2) Cook your pasta as normal. I use cooked chicken, but I suppose you could cook some fresh chicken to use instead. Mix some wholegrain mustard (not too much as it can be overpowering) with honey and mayonnaise and then mix the whole lot together (preferably when the pasta is still warm). I sometimes add quartered cherry tomatoes too. This is lovely cold the next day too.