Artichoke chicken n' shells

My breakfast experiment this morning turned out so good that I thought I'd share!

I pulled out the trusty Magic Bullet (TM) and blended up a marinade of about 1/4 c of mayonnaise,1 clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon, some rock salt, and about 6 marinated artichoke hearts, with a splash of the liquid from the artichokes for consistency. Pureed this until it was a sauce, and poured it over a large chicken breast that I had cut up. It would totally work fine if you wanted to do it as a whole breast or smaller pieces,  but I went for the peasant style, random-shaped chunks about 1.5" square, as it was getting tossed with bite-size pasta.

After the chicken had a chance to sit in the marinade a bit, like 15 minutes or so, I fished it out of the sauce and cooked it. I opted to pan fry it, but again it would probably work fine if you wanted to broil it or barbeque it even. I might try it barbequed next time, I think it would crisp up nicely.

There was quite a bit of marinade left over in the bowl, so it might be better to do two breasts instead of just one with this quantity.

I fried it in a drizzle of grapeseed oil, a few minutes on each side of the chunks, turning them regularly to get nice browning on all sides. While pan frying the chicken, the oil from the marinade separated, and I dumped a bit out, but not all of it. The rest in the pan became the "sauce" for the pasta!

I like to cook extra pasta and bag up the leftovers for later, I put it single-use portions into the freezer for times like this, when i just wanted a quick snack and not a whole pasta dish. For this dish, I used medium size shells. I put the shells into a bowl with a splash of water, and defrosted it in the microwave for two minutes while the chicken cooked. When ready, just drain off the water, add to the dish in the pan, and toss!

After everything was evenly hot and coated with sauce, it started to brown up a little, and I thought that was a good time to call it done. I served it all up with some sliced fresh avocado, and some finely grated parmesan, with a light spray of coarse ground pepper and salt.

All told, cooking time was under 10 minutes, and it was deeeelish. An unusual breakfast for sure, but hey, I`m an unusual gal! Who wouldn't  like chicken for breakfast anyway?

I should add, the longer you marinate this, the stronger the garlic flavor will be. As it was only 15 minutes, the artichoke was dominant, or I should say subtly managing the situation, rather than being overpowered by the garlic's dramatic flair. If you wanted to snazz it up with stronger flavors, more lemon would be nice.

Also an option, after marinating, roll in panko crumbs, and pan fry for a more crispy fried chicken style.