Chicken Pasta with Sherry

I made this dinner on the fly tonight and it turned out to be delicious.  I figured I had to write it down now or I’d surely forget.

I’d planned to have chicken something today, but only remembered to take the chicken breasts out of the freezer around 2:30.  At 5:00 you could hardly tell any thawing had occurred.  I pulled two out of the package, pried them apart, and began slicing them very thinly-maybe an eighth of an inch.  I don’t think I could slice them so thinly if they weren’t still mostly frozen.  I figured that would be a good way to cook them quickly, but hopefully not over cook them.  I put the iron skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon or so of olive oil in it.  I put the slices of chicken breast in the pan, let them sear for a few minutes, and turned them over.  I took them out of the pan and put them in a bowl to the side.  I didn’t worry if some of the thicker ones weren’t completely cooked through, but I knew I’d put them back in the pan at some point.  I did this in two batches so as not to over crowd the pan.  I also added some salt and pepper to the pan each time I added or turned the chicken.
     While the chicken cooked, I dug around in the fridge and cabinets to try to come up with some sort of sauce to eat with the chicken.  I pulled out a small onion, 4 garlic cloves, a tomato, chicken broth, and sherry wine.  I chopped everything and added a bit more oil to the pan.  I sauteed the onion for a few minutes and added 1 tablespoon of  flour.  I stirred in the flour, scraping the bottom of the pan, and let it cook for a minute or so.  Then, I added the garlic and let it cook for a minute.  Next I added about a cup of chicken stock.  I stirred everything and let it bubble for a bit.  Then, I added about a quarter cup of sherry.   I let the sauce simmer again and thicken over low heat.  Now that I had created something resembling Chicken Marsala, I put some water in a large pot to boil.  I added the chicken back to the pan and put a lid over it.  
     Once the water was boiling, I threw some angel hair pasta in the pot and set the timer for 3 minutes.  I turned the chicken over in the sauce, making sure to coat every piece, and put the lid back on.  After the 3 minutes was up, I put the pasta into the pan with the chicken and sauce.  I decided the tomato just didn’t go with the dish, so I washed some lettuce and made a salad with it.  I did add some of the pasta water the thin the sauce a bit.
     I served the chicken and pasta topped with freshly grated parmesan.  I suppose some chopped parsley would have been a nice addition, but I didn’t have any on hand.  My only regret is that I didn’t take a single picture of any portion of the meal.  Maybe next time.  
     Here’s the list of ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, mostly frozen
olive oil
salt and pepper
small onion
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbs flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup sherry
grated parmesan