In the Kitchen

I've been trying to broaden my dinner repertory. I usually make tacos, spaghetti, lasagna, chicken and rice casserole, poppy seed chicken casserole, hamburgers, country fried steak, chili, beef stew, red beans and rice blah blah blah.

So last week I tried out some of Pioneer Woman's recipes. I made her chicken spaghetti and the spicy shrimp.

It's not the first time I made something of her. At Christmas I made her French muffins. They were devoured in no time flat. So I knew whatever I made of hers, it would be good.

This week I've ventured out again. I think of cooking as an art and baking as more of a science so when I cook I don't measure and I change ingredients to suite myself. I seem to screw up almost everytime I try baking. Apparently, I'm an artist not a scientist.

Sunday I make chicken piccata tossed with bow-tie pasta. It called for penne rigate, but alas I did not have any in the cupboard. Sorry I neglected to take a picture. It was devoured before I could find a camera.

Tonight I decide to try a bayou chicken pasta Yum yum people! I decided to share a picture and the recipe with you since it was a winner even with the short people.

Now doesn't that look good!

Start with:

1 lb of linguine 1/4 cup kosher salt ( I didn't even get close to using that much) 2 TBS butter 1 TBS olive oil 1 1/2 lb skinless chicken cut into 1-in pcs (I didn't measure) 2 TBS seasoning salt (I used Tony Chachere's) 1 cup finely chopped onion (I used much less and added onion powder mixed with Tonys) 1 TBS chopped habanero pepper (I didn't use because of the little people) 1 TBS minced garlic (once again I didn't measure, but I love garlic) 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 1 cup diced tomatoes (I don't have a garden in the winter so, no tomatoes) 1/2 cup reserved pasta water (I used chicken broth) 1/2 cup chopped green onions (no garden, no onions) 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (didn't measure) 2 TBS chopped parsley (didn't measure)

As I was cooking the pasta (al dente, of course) I took the butter and the olive oil and heated it in a skillet adding the chicken that was sprinkled with onion power, tony's and salt. I let that cook until it was brown on both sides then took it out and set aside while I sauteed the onion (this is where you can add the habanera if you like) I added the garlic and then stared adding the cream , the chicken, the chicken broth, parsley and parmesan cheese (the recipe calls for adding the parsley, green onions and parmesan at the very end but I hate to follow directions) I let the cream reduce then added the linguine (this is where you can add your tomatoes)

If you try this recipe let me know how it turns out and what you did to make it your own.