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If you're looking for another idea
of what to do with boneless skinless chicken breast
like I am, I've got a great dish
I'm gonna show you right now.
It's penne alfredo with chicken and peas.
The chicken is only a role player,
it's not the star of the show.
I've got a pan preheating on medium high,
and I've got about a pound
of boneless skinless chicken ***.
And I'm gonna go ahead and add some olive oil
to my pan and let that get up to temperature
and faintly smoke, and while that's happening,
I'm gonna go ahead and season my chicken ***
just with some pan searing flour that already has
salt and pepper right in it.
I just want to get a nice even coat on both sides,
being mindful to pat off the excess.
Perfect, and I'm gonna go ahead and just swirl this,
make sure my oil's right there.
As you can see I've got a nice little bit of smoke,
and I'm just gonna go ahead and lay these
chicken *** down. And we're pan searing,
we've done videos on pan searing before
at this point, like I've always said,
you wanna really just let the pan do the work.
We're gonna look for that nice paper-bag brown
on the side. It's just hit the pan.
That's gonna take about three or four minutes.
I'm just gonna get rid of this plate
and wash my hands while those continue to brown.
Alright, perfect, so it's been
about three or four minutes, let's just take a look and see.
Yeah, beautiful. That's exactly what I'm
looking for right there. You know, again, we call it
that paper-bag brown, but I mean, that caramelization
of the chicken really means flavor, and now that I've flipped it,
it's gonna take another ten minutes or so to cook
or at least before we start basting, and that's why I love this dish
for the weeknight because while that's going on,
I can multi-task. That's exactly the same
amount of time it's gonna take for the pasta to cook.
So I've got my double cooker going here
and I'm just gonna go ahead and add my penne pasta
right to my boiling water. And that's gonna take anywhere
from nine to eleven minutes to cook depending on how
you like it done. Perfect amount of time
to the chicken, so come back in a little bit
when the pasta's done and then it's gonna be time
to put this whole dish together. Okay, so it's been
about ten minutes, I wanna go ahead.
I'm almost ready to baste my chicken,
but I want to make sure that I'm close on temperature.
I'm looking for 160 degrees right now.
So I'm just gonna go ahead with my thermometer
and get it into the thickest part... and perfect.
I still need to get it to 165, but I want to make sure
that I'm close before I add by butter and my basting oil.
Okay, so now I'm gonna turn my heat down to medium low
or low and I'm gonna add a teaspoon of butter
and a tablespoon of basting oil.
And all I simply wanna do is just tilt my pan,
want that butter to melt. I've got some fond
on the bottom of the pot, which is just caramelized chicken,
it's got a lot of flavor and I just wanna go ahead
and baste that right over the top of the chicken,
get some of the herbs and the garlic from the basting oil
to flavor that chicken. Okay, and I just need to let this sit
for a minute or two just to make sure
we get up to 165 degrees. While that's continuing to cook,
I'm ready to go ahead and drain my pasta
and that's why I think this is such a great
weeknight meal because everything
really comes together almost at the same time.
As soon as your chicken's done, it moves pretty fast.
Now what I've done is I have some alfredo sauce
that comes already packaged. It's made for us
by the Napolitano family in Canada. It's a wonderful sauce
and that's really what's gonna bind everything together.
And I've just taken the chill off of that,
I've just had that heating up in a small pan.
Okay, now that my pasta is drained,
I just wanna go ahead and I'm gonna put it
right in my bowl, let that sit.
Now, I've got peas in this recipe as well
and I'm just using frozen peas.
They're great year around, they're always sweet,
they're always consistent. We have some that you can put
in the microwave, but since I have my water
ready to go, I'm just gonna go ahead
and throw my peas right in my boiling water
so I'm not dirtying another dish. My chicken's had a chance to baste,
so I'm just gonna go ahead and remove that
from the pan, right, and give that a chance
to rest for a moment. I've got my hot alfredo sauce
that I'm actually gonna pour right over the top
of my pasta. My peas have had
enough time in the water just to go ahead
and warm them through. Those go right into
the pot as well. Then all I wanna do
is mix this together, and you can see that sauce
just coats the pasta perfectly. There's enough water
still clinging to the pasta and from the peas.
It thins it out just the right amount for me.
Just go ahead and give that a quick stir,
make sure everything's coated.
And then I can just take a little bit out,
set it right down on my bowl.
You can serve it family style, right in the bowl,
but I like to, I like to class this up a little bit
even though it's a weeknight meal for me.
I like to make it look just a little pretty.
So I go ahead, I take part of my chicken.
I'm just gonna make some nice thin slices.
And again, remember I told you
in the beginning the chicken is not the star of the show,
it's just a bit player. Gonna top this
with a little blend of Parmigiano-Reggiano
and Pecorino Romano, one's a little nutty,
one's a little salty, and because what this
really is, it's almost a take on pasta carbonara,
which is classically means the coal miner's pasta.
So what I like to do is I like to take some
cracked black pepper, just finish it with
cracked black pepper. It's a great weeknight meal.