Blackened Chicken Alfredo!
First of all, let me say, any pasta with a homemade Alfredo sauce usually tastes amazing and involves very little effort! It is a great go to if you are having friends over or just want a good savory meal. Here is my culinary escapade for the night.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 5 Servings
Ingredients
Chicken
3-4 Chicken Breasts
1 cup of blackening seasoning (you can make your own,which I prefer, or buy some in the spice isle)
1-2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sauce
3 cups of heavy cream
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3-4 cloves of Garlic (or about 3 tbsp minced)
1 cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
1/4 cup of pinot grigio (or a white cooking wine)
3/4 cup of grated or shredded parmesan cheese.
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper (you can substitute ground pepper)
salt to taste ( I started adding and tasting, probably ended up using 1 tsp)
1-2 tbsp Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
1 16oz packages of Penne Pasta
Main Cooking Paraphernalia
oven dish (I used my pyrex 4 quart dish)
Large Skillet
Sauce Pan
Cutting board
The Action!
1. ) Preheat oven to 350. If you have thick chicken breasts, cut them in half. Rub each piece of chicken with seasoning on both sides.
2.) Heat about 1 tbsp oil in skillet to medium heat and add then add chicken and cook for a few minutes on each side (until the outside looks cooked). Then place in oven dish and cook in oven for about 10-12 minutes or until done.
While the chicken is cooking...start your sauce!
3.) Use the same skillet you used for the chicken, and add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil on medium heat. Once the skillet is hot add garlic and cook for about 2-3 minutes or until it starts turning a golden color.
4.) Add sun-dried tomato slices and sauté with the garlic mixture for another 1-2 minutes.
5.) Slowly add in the white wine (be careful, it may pop at you) stir the mixture around and make sure to get all the bits up from the bottom of the skillet. (fyi...if you didn't know this is called deglazing).
6.) Add the heavy cream and increase the heat until it comes to a simmer (be careful not to let it get to a full boil). Allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes or until the sauce has reduced to about 1 1/2 cups. If you want more sauce you don't have to let it reduce as much.
7.) Reduce heat to low and slowly add in parmesan and allow it to melt into the sauce.
8.) This part is up to the taste you want! I added 1 tbsp of fresh ground pepper, 1tsp of salt, 1 tbsp of garlic powder and 2 tbsp of Tony Chachere's. I recommend adding a little bit of each at a time, until you achieve the flavor you want. I like a flavor with more of a kick, so I added a good amount of Tony Chachere's! Remember that the chicken will have a good amount of salt and spice to it too, so keep in mind that you don't want the sauce to have too strong of a flavor.
9.) Add the pasta and coat with sauce.
10.) When you are ready to eat, slice the chicken up and place on top of pasta.
Lessons learned...
So quick note! My sauce was originally very creamy and saucy, however because I wasn't able to serve it right away and I kept it on the heat to keep warm, it reduced a little bit more than I would have liked. It still tasted great though (and still had plenty of sauce)! But a small note, that if you do want lots of extra sauce on your place, don't mix in the pasta until a few minutes before you are ready to serve.
Oh ya! And if you don't have any blackening seasoning in your pantry, it is really easy to make your own. Here is a blackening recipe that Guy Fieri tends to use, and it always turns out great on chicken and shrimp.
Guy Fieri's Blackening seasoning
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp pepper
1/2 tbsp salt
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
