Pasta with Broccoli and a Creamy Garlic Sauce

Tonight for dinner I decided on an Italian dish. I had been looking over many Italian recipes lately. Since I was very late to rise today, not to mention late to get any grocery shopping done. I decided to take a little from a recipe I ran across on the blog, A Taste of Home. I would like to add that this blog was wonderful and had so many recipes that looked wonderful.  I made too many changes to really even say that this is a recipe I found there, but I did take some of the ingredients from the recipe, Saucy Garlic Chicken. While this was a good dish, which I am sure I will make again, there will definitely be changes that I will make the next time. Like add salt and make the sauce much thinner. I am going to give you the recipe I used and tell you at the end of the recipe what changes I will be making the next time I make this dish.

Pasta with Broccoli and Creamy Garlic Sauce

5-garlic cloves, finely minced
8 T. or 1-stick of butter
6 T. flour
3 C. milk
1/2 C. half and half
1 T. garlic granules
1 t. salt
1/2 t. course ground black pepper
4-5 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
12 oz. box of bow tie pasta
12 oz. pkg frozen broccoli

In a large skillet saute garlic in 2 T. of butter. Be sure not to let your garlic brown as it will become bitter. Set garlic aside in a small dish. In the same pan, melt 6 T. of butter add in 6 T. flour to make your roux. Slowly add 3 C. milk, 1/2 C. of half and half, stir in garlic, garlic granules, salt and pepper. Heat sauce another 4 minutes and remove from heat and set aside. Cook pasta per package instructions until al dente. Steam broccoli and add to cooked pasta. In another skillet, add 2 T. extra virgin olive oil, heat oil, add chicken strips approx. 3 to 4 minutes per side or until chicken is done. Heat sauce until very at this time add more milk if sauce is too thick or more flour if sauce is too thin. Add about 2/3 of sauce into the pasta/broccoli and toss to cover. Pour pasta in to a large pasta serving bowl and top with chicken strips. Pour remaining sauce on top of the chicken and serve with warm crusty Italian bread and a salad.

After making this, I felt the sauce was too thick. I prefer a thinner sauce on my pasta. The next time I make this dish, here is what I will change. I would cut the amount of flour in half, add an additional 2 T. of butter. I also felt the dish needed more salt, this can be added to the sauce, so be sure to taste frequently to adjust seasonings. The garlic, I will add an additional 3 cloves and maybe omit or at least cut the garlic granules in half.
This dish would also be good with fresh broccoli, but I used frozen, since that was all I had. You could also replace the broccoli with spinach, which I will also do the next time I make this dish. Not because I didn't like the broccoli, but just for a change. If you are looking for a vegetarian dish, just omit the chicken. Sorry I do not have a picture of this dish. We were just very hungry and forgot to take one. :)
I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did!

Saffron