Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Pasta

Directions

1. 1
   Roast your red peppers in the oven at 450° for 15-20 minutes on each side. To prepare for roasting, brush the peppers with 2 T vegetable oil (don't use olive oil as it can smoke at a lower temperature). Place on a shallow baking dish (don't use a cookie sheet as the juices can flow off the sides). For a more in-depth tutorial, see here: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Roasting-Peppers/Detail.aspx Make sure to remove the seeds before proceeding.
2. 2
   While you're waiting for the bell peppers to cool, in a large frying pan, heat 2 T olive oil then add the onion, garlic and spices, except the bay leaves. Saute for 5-7 minutes on medium-high heat.
3. 3
   Add your (thawed) chicken to the frying pan. Cook through on both sides at medium heat.
4. 4
   Chop up your roasted red peppers and add to the chicken. Saute for 5 minutes on medium heat.
5. 5
   If you decide to add a can of tomato paste, I'd recommend skipping this step. At this point, there will be a lot of extra liquid in the chicken mixture. Get out a small sauce pan (I actually used what I was going to boil the pasta in for this) and pour the additional liquid in it and cook on medium to high heat uncovered for 10 minutes while the chicken mixture finishes cooking. Try to get it cooked down a bit. Pour this back into the chicken mixture. You can skip this step if you'd like, but the chicken mixture gets kind of watery.
6. 6
   Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, and add to the frying pan to toss with chicken mixture. I tossed an additional 2 T of olive oil in at this point, but this is optional. Cook for 2-4 minutes or until you think the mixture is combined.
7. 7
   Take off heat and serve with grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese.