Spicy Tomato Cream Chicken Rigatoni

Ingredients: 

Chicken tenderloin

Rigatoni 16oz

Marinara sauce 28oz (we use our homemade sauce, recipe coming soon)

Sweet onion 1/3 cup

2 cloves of chopped garlic

Olive oil 

¾ cup of chopped orange bell peppers

3 Tsp of chopped jalapeno 

2 Tsp Italian seasoning 

1 Tsp crushed red peppers 

1 Tsp salt 

Pepper to taste 

Chopped fresh Basil 

1 cup heavy whipping cream 

1 Tsp sugar 

1 Cup of shredded Parmesan Cheese 

*if you do not want this spicy you can leave out the Jalapeno and red peppers, but you may lose some of the flavor.

• Coat the Chicken in olive oil and Montreal steak seasoning to rest while you are preparing your sauce. 

• Coat the bottom of your pan with Olive oil and let the Oil heat up until it is "crackling."
• Sauté the onions and garlic until the onion are almost cooked through, about 2 minutes. 
• Add your Bell peppers and jalapeno, continue to sauté for a few more minutes. 
• Add in your tomato sauce and your heavy cream. 
• Mix in your basil, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. 
• Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. 
• While your sauce is simmering prepare your noodles and chicken. 
• Thinly slice your chicken and place in a pan with some olive oil on med high heat.

• Cook chicken for 3 to 6 minutes depending on how thin you sliced your chicken. Remove from heat.

• Once your sauce is done simmering add in 1 Tbl of sugar and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. 

• Toss in your cooked noodles and chicken in your sauce and enjoy. We tossed in warm pan and found that really combined the flavors well.

This recipe was inspired by an Episode of Diners, Drive-In & Dives.  We've made several changes to fit our tastes but the idea looked so delicious on tv we just had to try!

Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breast
3/4 cup butter
4 Tablespoons cream cheese
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
cumin
olive oil

Cook pasta.  We used Penne pasta but any type should work well.

Sauce :
In a medium sauce pan melt butter and add garlic. Let the garlic cook in butter for about 3 minutes on medium heat. Add heavy cream and cream cheese. Cook and stir until cream cheese is well blended.  Add a dash of Cajun seasoning, 1 tsp. Italian seasoning, 1 cup Parmesan cheese and salt/pepper to taste. Once Your Parmesan cheese is melted in toss your pasta in sauce, cover and set stove to "warm."

Chicken :
Place chicken in a large zip lock bag or between two pieces of plastic wrap. Pound chicken until it about 1/4 of a Inch thin. I have found that its works best if you work from the center out to the edges. Coat both sides of chicken with Cajun seasoning and cumin. (don't go too crazy with a Cajun you want a good coat but too much will make it too salty). Place a small amount of butter and olive oil in your frying pan, enough to coat bottom of pan. Once Oil and butter are heated up (sizzling) place your chicken in the pan.  Brown both sides, about 5 min your chicken should be about done.  Check with a kitchen thermometer.  Take your chicken out of the pan and slice long ways against the grain.

Place pasta on plate and top with a few strips of chicken.

BAM its dinner time.