Smothered Chicken and Roasted Asparagus

Everybody has their staple meals and one of ours is smothered chicken.  It taste like it took all day to cook but I can easily crank it out on a weeknight.  

The trick is to use jar tomato sauce, yeah i know, it sounds like a Rachel Ray trick or worse yet a trick of the devil.  But, the trick is not the sauce, it's making it your own.

Whenever I know I'm going to make it, I roast a head of garlic.  It's easy, garlic with the top cut off, put on some salt and olive oil, onto a pan at 200 for 1.5 hours.

The roasted garlic goes into sauce (I like Newman's Own) along with some sauteed shallots, veggie broth and tomato paste (use the stuff in a tube; the can taste like crap).  Just leave it on low and let it simmer.  Add some fresh basil at the end.

Pan saute some chicken breast and then add (smother) them in the tomato sauce.

I let it cook as long as I have time and then serve with pasta.  Tonight it was accompanied by roasted asparagus.