"Cajun" Chicken Pasta

Tonight I decided to make "Cajun" Chicken Pasta. I use the term "Cajun" loosely. A true Cajun would laugh this recipe out of the park :) But it's closer to Cajun than any other style so Cajun it is! This recipe is one I developed based off of two other recipes; one an Alfredo sauce wanna-be that, in spite, of not being true Alfredo is easy and yummy, and the second a recipe that was originally made with catfish....I'm not sure what made me put it together like this, but it worked!
(The amounts below are for two servings)

Oh yes, and music is a huge part of why cooking is such fun for me. Tonight's playlist was: Two Princes, Spin Doctors; One Week, Barenakedladies; Closing Time, Super Sonic; Stacy's Mom, Fountains of Wayne; Oly Wanna Be With you, Hootie and the Blowfish; Bright Lights, Matchbox 20; Island in the Sun, Weezer; Everybody, Ingrid Michaelson; Almost, Bowling for Soup; Saltwater room, Owl City. Thank You Pandora.com! (Find this at station: Fireflies )


Cajun Chicken:
1 Chicken Breast
3-4 Tbs. Cooking Oil
Lemon Pepper
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Garlic (Granulated or Powdered)

Pasta Sauce:
1 Package Cream Cheese
Parmesan Cheese**Optional
4 Tbs. Butter
3/4 Cup of Milk
Lemon Pepper
Garlic
Salt

The first thing we want to do is get some of the oil heating up. ( Oops, FIRST thing is to pre-heat the oven to 350) I use my big cast Iron skillet, but any pan will work. I'd guess this is about3-4 Tablespoons of oil. I'm only making one chicken breast so I don't need a whole lot but if you're making a larger amount you'll have to use more. Turn the heat up pretty good- we're going to blacken that chicken!



I don't measure this because it just isn't that crucial (plus I hate measuring). We have a good amount of Paprika, then right below it is the Lemon Pepper, to the right is Granulated garlic, the bottom spice is Pepper, and over to the left is the salt. There's also some Cayenne in there, 2 good dashes (use more if you want it hot!)

Mix it up good!

Next take your chicken and lay it down in the spice bed. Make sure you have a nice thick layer/crust of spices because that's the part that we want to blacken, not the chicken it's self....that isn't blackening, it's just plain burning it!

Now your oil should be hot hot hot! You'll want to make sure you don't leave the chicken in too long, you want to blacken the spices but not the chicken.

Here's a pic that will kind of show the 'Blackening'.



All right, here's the part that may make you laugh at me, but just try it, it's really good! Take some Italian Dressing... (I use this brand because it doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it)

And douse the chicken in it!!
For one chicken breast I use about 1/4 of the bottle, then pop it in your preheated oven for 30 minutes!

Now, while the chicken cooks we'll make our pasta sauce. Melt your butter and cream cheese together. Don't be frustrated when they won't combine well, it will come together in the next few steps

Once your butter and cream cheese are melted together add the milk (you can totally use 1/2 and 1/2 for this, but i don't) and let it come to a very gentle simmer. Make sure you stir this pretty constantly for now, you don't want it to burn cuz then it's a pain to wash the pot later!

Once you bring it slowly up to a simmer you can add the cheese. I use a romano/parm blend because it melts together really well. Plain old parm really doesn't melt much. Too tell you the truth , if I only had...say, Kraft Parm in the fridge I would just skip the cheese. Chances are it will just sit in the sauce and be grainy. But if you have a really high quality one that will melt then go for it! As you can see I just use about a handful.

Now I add some light seasonings. Don't go too heavy here since the chicken has a lot of seasonings. I use some Lemon Pepper and Garlic.

I put the sauce in a bowl in the microwave to keep it warm without it drying out too much on top.

Yum! My pans may be ugly but the chicken is sure good-looking, am I right?

Take the chicken out of the drippings and slice it up however thick you want it...

And enjoy!!

Super-Easy Baked Potato Soup

I haven't updated this blog in almost a year and a half, I had created it to help my family in California stay in touch with the happenings here in Tx with our boys. But ever since they all (well, mostly!) joined Facebook it's been un-needed. Until tonight. I updated my Facebook status declaring that it was time for Baked Potato Soup and had a few people who wanted to know the recipe. Well, on a whim I decided to go one up and took pictures of the process. Aren't I just a Pioneer Woman wanna-be?! Yes. And it's fun.
Oh- and I should probably mention that I purposely don't have you make a roux in this soup. If you want to make it that way it's yummy too- but the whole reason I call this the Super-Easy way to make potato soup is because we avoid it. I've gotten good at making a roux, but it's far from foolproof, I still mess it up from time to time if I am distracted. So, we use the same ingredients but combine them is a simpler, harder to mess up way!

So here's what I used:
5 slices of bacon, diced
8 pearl onions sliced (any onion will do, this is just what I had on hand)
2 large russet potatoes, baked, peeled, and cut into chunks
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of flour
Salt and Pepper

So you start by putting the potatoes in the microwave to 'bake'. Pierce the skins with a fork and put them in for about 10 minutes (depending on your micro). While they are cooking you can get going on other parts of the soup but don't forget to take them out of the micro to cool as soon as they are finished cooking or you will burn your fingers later!





Then you take the 5 slices of bacon and dice them, then brown the bacon in the pot you're going to use for the soup.





While the bacon is browning peel and slice up the onions.





When the bacon is nice and crispy scoop it out and put it on a paper towel to cool.





Then saute the onions in the bacon grease. :) I love bacon grease- so useful!





Then when the onions are cooked through and just starting to brown you add the 2 cups of chicken broth. (Before adding the broth I do remove about half the bacon grease, we don't want an oil slick on top of the soup!)





While you let the broth and onions come up to a simmer take your (hopefully) cooled baked potatoes and cut the ends off and slice off the skin. I usually forget to take the potatoes out of the microwave after they finish cooking and so burn my fingers during this step....But hopefully you are smarter than me!





Chop them into nice big chunks.





By now you should have a nice gentle simmer going with your mixture of chicken broth and onions.




Time to begin bringing it all together! Pour yourself 2 cups of cold milk and measure out 1/2 a cup of flour. Now, it's probably a better idea to use an actual 1/2 cup measuring cup, but I lost mine a while ago... not entirely sure how I did that since measuring cups generally stay in the kitchen, but oh well! So now i just do a general sort of measuring by scooping about 1/2 of my 1 cup.





Now you want to mix the flour into your cold milk. You reaaaaaally have to mix it in well, this is important, if you have a bunch of lumps you will end up with a lumpy soup...ick.





So now we have 2 cups of our flour/milk mixture and.....a whisk. Another very important part- you are going to slowly pour your milk/flour mix into the gently simmering broth WHILE whisking to keep lumps from forming.





Ok, so just because I love you i did put down the whisk to get a picture. I only have two hands and one had to hold the camera phone. But don't do that ;) Whisk while you pour! Then let the mixture thicken while you whisk. I usually turn up the heat just a notch or two after the milk is mixed in to help raise the heat quicker after adding all that cold milk.





After the soup is thickened add your potato chunks and salt and pepper your soup to taste. So now it's pretty much done, but it doesn't look that impressive, though it's very tasty.... Which brings us to our last step...





Garnish your tasty bowl of goodness with whatever you like on your baked potatoes, I usually put bacon, cheese, and green onions but I didn't have any green onions so i decided just bacon and cheese is good enough for tonight.

Enjoy!