Chicken favorite morphs into a pasta dish

One of the things I miss most about working at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is how it forced me to constantly try new recipes. Sure, I still browse recipes in the newspaper and other publications, but the chances of me making a recipe that I've sat staring at for hours are much higher. I got to know the recipes so well while editing them, I could almost taste them, which usually meant that it would be appearing on my table within the week.

That's not to say all the recipes were winners, but working there definitely added more girth to my myriad recipe books. Among the winners, however, is Chicken Paillards with Cremini Mushroom Sauce, which I've been making a little too often lately because I don't have a lot of other recipes that use leeks, and I've been getting a lot of them from the farm.

So this time I decided to mix things up a bit. I was struggling to decide what kind of starch to make with the chicken. I usually make my Rice Pilaf, but that just sounded so boring. Instead, I turned the recipe into a pasta dish that I've actually been mulling in my head for a couple of weeks:

Pasta with Chicken, Mushroom and Leeks
2 chicken breasts, cut in strips
1/2 t. kosher salt, divided
1/4 t. garlic salt
4 slices bacon, chopped
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 leek, sliced thin
2 c. penne pasta
3/4 c. chicken broth, divided
1/4 c. sour cream
2 t. cornstarch
 
Mix chicken with 1/4 t. kosher salt and garlic salt and let marinate in the fridge for about 2 hours.
 
Heat a large nonstick skillet to medium high and cook bacon. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels; drain all but 1 T. of the bacon. Saute chicken in the bacon grease until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Add mushrooms and leek to the skillet with remaining 1/4 t. salt and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 c. chicken broth and sour cream and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, mix remaining 1/4 c. chicken broth with cornstarch and stir until thoroughly mixed, then add to simmering sauce; stir until thickened. Add bacon and chicken to sauce to heat through.
 
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package instructions. Add cooked pasta to sauce and serve.