Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

The first week without Marcus. The house is quieter. Not silent — five people and a Curtis still make plenty of noise — but the particular noise that Marcus made is absent: the debate practice at the dinner table, the twenty-minute showers, the sound of a boy reading aloud from legal texts as if rehearsing for a future that he's already living. That noise is at Morehouse now. That noise is someone else's roommate's problem.

He called Sunday night. "What did you make for dinner?" The first question. Not "how are you" or "what's new" — "what did you make for dinner." He is his mother's son. The question about food is the question about everything: are you okay? Is the table set? Is the family fed? Is the world still turning? I said, "Baked chicken, rice, green beans." He said, "I had dining hall pasta." He said it with the specific disappointment of a boy who has eaten his mother's cooking for eighteen years and is now eating food made by an institution that doesn't know him. I said, "It gets better." He said, "It doesn't." He's probably right.

Made dinner for six. The plate I used to set for Marcus is now in the cabinet. I didn't put it away dramatically — I just set five plates plus Curtis's instead of six plus Curtis's and the subtraction was invisible to everyone except me and the math lives in my chest. Five plates. One fewer. The table holds five the way it held seven the way it held three the way it will hold whoever comes next: completely, without counting. But I count. I will always count. Five plates. One son at Morehouse. One Folgers can on a desk forty minutes away. The math is love and the love is plates and the plates are set.

Baked chicken is what I made the night Marcus called, and baked chicken is what I’ll keep making—but some weeks the table needs something that feels a little more like a hug, something with a sauce that coats everything and holds it together. This creamy sun-dried tomato chicken pasta is that dinner: it comes together in one pan, it feeds five people generously, and it is exactly the kind of meal that says you are still being taken care of without anyone having to say a word. I made it on a Thursday when the quiet was especially loud, and every plate came back clean.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 5

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
12 oz penne pasta
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
2 tablespoons olive oil (or oil from the sun-dried tomato jar)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh basil or parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook penne according to package directions until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, then drain and set aside.
Season and sear the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry and season with Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken in a single layer and cook 5–6 minutes, stirring once, until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
Build the sauce base. Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, add garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for about 1 minute until fragrant.
Add the cream and broth. Pour in the chicken broth and heavy cream. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 4–5 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken slightly.
Finish with Parmesan. Reduce heat to low and stir in the Parmesan until fully melted and the sauce is smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of the reserved pasta water and stir.
Combine and serve. Return the chicken and cooked pasta to the skillet. Toss everything together until well coated and heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately, garnished with fresh basil or parsley and extra Parmesan.

Nutrition (per serving)

Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta — Five Plates Set, All the Love Still There