Oven-baked chicken, mushroom and cream pasta.

Method

• step 1

  Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add a little splash of olive oil and the pasta. Cook for 4 minutes or until al dente. Drain and return to the pan. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

• step 2

  Season the whole chicken fillets with salt and pepper and then lightly shallow fry them in a little olive oil on a medium heat. Turn them regularly until they're just starting to colour, about 7 minutes. They should be white and still juicy throughout when you take them off the heat and slice them diagonally into thin strips.

• step 3

  For the sauce, add the butter to the pan along with the finely diced shallot. Add in the mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes until the onions are translucent but not browning. Add the garlic, crushed. Stir for a further minute or so until you can smell the garlic. Reduce the heat and pour in the cream. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper and allow to reduce very slightly so that the cream thickens a bit and is slightly sticking to the spoon.

• step 4

  Stir in the the chicken and pasta. When mixed add about a quarter of the parmesan cheese by grating this in directly. Cook for another minute or two. The texture should be sticky and the chicken and pasta should both be starting be covered in the sauce.

• step 5

  Dish into oven-proof dish(es) and cover with foil. Pop into the oven and leave for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and carefully remove the foil. Grate over about half of the remaining parmesan liberally and return to the oven for a another 10 minutes before removing and serving with a final further helping of parmesan on the top and pepper to taste.