Monday, May 23, 2016

Cooking with Zach: Part 3 / One Pot Chicken Alfredo


One Pot Chicken Alfredo

I saw a video on line and was hoping it would be a good recipe to teach Zach. He loves pasta with Alfredo sauce, the recipe has just a few ingredients, and the dish is made in just one pot. Sure, we got some measuring cups, a cutting board, a knife, and some other utensils dirty as well, but it was well worth it. 

Here is the video link (it's only 30 seconds long):


Chicken Pasta Alfredo

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt and pepper
seasoning salt (optional; we used Johnny's Seasoning Salt)
1 pound chicken breasts, cut into bit sized pieces
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
14 ounces (1 can) low sodium chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 pound penne pasta (we used mini-bow tie pasta, Barilla Brand called "Mini Farfalle"
1 1/2 cups of grated parmesan cheese

In a large pot, heat oil over medium to medium high heat. 
Season the chicken breast on the cutting board (a few pinches of salt and pepper and seasoning salt if using). 
Carefully add the chicken to the hot oil on the pot and reduce heat to medium. Allow chicken to brown on all sides but it's not necessary to cook the chicken all the way through at this point.
Add the garlic to the chicken and allow to cook for 1 to 2 minutes; the garlic will become fragrant.
Add the chicken broth, heavy cream, and pasta to the pot.  Stir to combine and bring to a boil.  When it comes to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce to a simmer over low, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Since we used small pasta, it was perfectly done at 15 minutes.  We stirred the pasta once or twice during the 15 minutes.  Test the pasta to ensure it is done.  Once it's done, stir in the parmesan cheese until well incorporated and warmed through.

Enjoy!
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This pasta is really delicious. Why wouldn't it be!?!  Heavy cream, pasta, and cheese!  Zach and I talked about how you could alter the recipe.  I like that Zach had the idea to add the Johnny's Seasoning to the recipe. 
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I just saw this funny article on the internet and it made me feel good that Zach is learning to cook some great looking meals.  Here's an article about some epic cooking fails if you'd like to take the time to look at the article and photos, the link is HERE.

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