noxious.sunshine

I'ma post this here and then maybe someday when I unlazy myself, I'll COPY & PASTE this bitch into my food blog....

......... The food blog I haven't updated since 1995.

If any of y'all have ever perused through my food blog, then you know my ass don't measure. I just don't. I go by how things look as far as consistency & how they taste as I add ingredients.

Anyway. This was the first recipe I tried from my Guy Fieri cookbook.. He's the absolute tits. His flavor profile is more on my level (as opposed to Giada, Rachel, Anne, Bobby, and Ina). And while the cookbook I got this from can get pretty irritating 'cuz there's a crap ton of stories and "beginners' guides" to veggies & meats, the recipes are still pretty stellar.

I love cajun chicken pasta. Ever since that first time when I tried it at Chili's. And then started eating Red Lobster's. Chili's uses penne and chopped fresh tomato. And maybe bacon. IDK. Red Lobster's uses fettucini. Whatever.

This is Guy's version. And you can totes add cooked, crumbled bacon.

YOU NEED:

• Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
• Olive Oil
• Minced Garlic
• Dry White Wine (Chardonnay)
• Heavy Cream (Get that lil 1/2 sized box if you're just serving 3 or 4 people)
• Sun Dried Tomatoes, chopped or sliced (Do yourself a favor and get the kind that's already packed in oil- then you can have the oil from the tomatoes to use for cooking instead of buying a whole 'nother bottle of $10 regular olive oil. Unless you've already got olive oil. Then do whatever the hell you want)
• Fettuccine
• Parmesan Cheese
• Salt & Pepper
• Finely Chopped Onion (optional)
• Blackening Spice Rub (Store bought or use Guy's version):

It's a mix of:
- Cayenne, White & Black Pepper, Cumin, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Salt.

You should make a lot of it. To be safe. Use your best judgment. Don't use a crap ton of cayenne, obvs. Or cumin for that matter. Unless you love cumin. And not much salt is needed. Seriously. There's plenty of sodium in everything else- you don't need the extra in the blackening mix. If you -do- happen to use too much of one thing (namely salt or cayenne), the alfredo sauce will kinda cut through it and mellow it out when you mix the chicken with it.

TO MAKE:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil , preheat the oven to 350, and heat a large skillet over really high heat. Guy says use a cast iron, but I ain't got that trout, so use a nonstick skillet.
2. Sprinkle, pat, dredge, whatever the chicken in the blackening seasoning, making sure it's all coated.
3. Guy says just throw the chicken in the hot cast iron just like that. No oil or butter. If you're using a non-stick skillet, give it some love with a little olive oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. So that the spice rub doesn't stick to the pan and burn. Or something. Anyway. You're gonna pan sear these bitches for like 3 minutes on each side.
4. Transfer the chicken to a baking dish & stick it in the oven for like 10 min. - until the chicken is cooked through.
5. Then take it out and slice it "on the bias" (whatever that means)
6. So while your chicken is cooking in the oven, do something with that non-cast iron ass skillet you've been cooking in. Wipe it out w paper towels and/or add more olive oil to it.
7. If you opted in for chopped onion (which you should've), then add them to the skillet & sautee for a couple of minutes. Then add the garlic and continue sauteeing for another couple of minutes.
8. Then dump in the wine. Don't ask me how much. Just don't pour in the whole bottle. Or even half of it. Just pour some in.
9. Then dump that heavy cream in & simmer it until it reduces by 1/2 (don't go to quite 1/2way, if you ask me). It'll take a minute for that cream to reduce though. Just saying.
10. Add them there sun dried tomaters & that chikken you cut up however the hell you cut it up.
11. Somewhere during all of this, you were supposed to add the fettuccine noodles to the salted boiling water & cook it to "Al Dente", then drain it - NO RINSING.
12. Back to the sauce now: When you've reduced it enough, add some parmesan & salt & pepper & kinda let it get all creamy and yummy.
13. Then throw the noodles in there with the chicken and like toss it around to coat it and then scoop it onto plates. And top with more parmesan cheese.

Okay. Okay. I just can't wrap my head around how scatterbrained the steps of this recipe seemed to be as I was typing it out.

Also, I kind of find tossing everything together in the pan to be a bit sloppy if you're going for presentation. I would say put a serving of noodles on the plate or in the bowl, then scoop on some of the alfredo, then top with the sliced chicken and sprinkle some parm on there.. And maybe a few extra sliced sun-dried tomatoes.

Adding the chicken to the sauce in the pan works if you want to cut some of the blackened seasoning taste, but if you plate it the way I just said up there, then you can just mix it all up after plating and get the same effect.

If the alfredo sauce seems too thick after adding the parmesan cheese, add more wine- a little at a time- to thin it out. So that it can coat everything. Like I said, I don't measure. So it's up to you to use best judgment.

This turned out really good regardless. I didn't even do the steps exactly right, either.

Also, you could add mushrooms- sautee them somewhat in the olive oil before you add onion & garlic.

And of course crumbled bacon would go very well mixed in with all of this.