Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375F

• Line a sheet tray with tin foil and then place 2 chicken breast on foil. Drizzle with oil and then sprinkle 1 tsp of dried thyme and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes over the chicken. Then sprinkle ½ tsp salt, and ¼-1/2 tsp pepper over the chicken and toss/rub to combine.

• Dice ½ yellow onion, 2 carrots, and 2 celery stalks, and slice, into thin strips, 3 garlic cloves. Set aside.

• Once oven is preheated, place chicken in the oven and cook until the internal temperature is 160-165F. Time will vary greatly depending on the thickness of the breast. Either leave an oven rated thermometer in the breast, or start checking every 5 minutes, after the initial 15 minutes have passed.

• In a large pan, placed over medium to medium high heat, drizzle in 2 tbsp oil. Once hot, place the diced onion, carrots, and celery in the pan and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes.

• After 10 minutes, toss in the sliced garlic and 1 tbsp tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, pour in 1 tsp each of dried basil, oregano, dried marjoram, and 2 bay leaves. Stir to evenly distribute everything. After 1-2 minutes, pour in the diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, don’t worry about draining the cans.

• Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Once at a simmer, pour in 1-2 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper. Stir to combine and simmer for 10 minutes.

• Once chicken has reached at least 160F pull from the oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes to reach the internal temp of 165F

• Once sauce has simmered away for a little while, taste for seasoning as it may need more salt or if you want it spicy, some crushed red pepper flakes. Preheat oven back to 375F if is not still there.

• Cut chicken into bite size pieces.

• Pour about half of the sauce into a 9×13 baking dish, pour in diced chicken, and 10-12oz rotini pasta (if you have a whole 1lb box, that is fine to use, you will just need some extra water and your sauce may be a touch thin.)

  

• Stir everything to combine and then top with the other half of the sauce. Give everything a couple more stirs to finish incorporating things and then pour in enough water to where the everything is covered. Do not over fill or fill all the way to the top of the dish as this will be too much water. Just enough water to where everything is covered. Sprinkle with a touch more salt so the pasta has some seasoning and then place in the oven for 15-25 minutes.

• After 15 minutes check on the bubble level of the pasta, if there are still a lot of small bubbles bubbling around the side, the pasta needs at least 5 more minutes. Check every 5 minutes and once you see less and bigger bubbles your pasta is basically done.

• Once pasta is at that point, pull the dish from the oven. If you are topping with cheese to melt, turn the broiler on. Top pasta dish with grated cheese and place under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and brown.

• Pull from the oven and let rest at least 5-10 minutes and then serve and enjoy!

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