These are both originally out of the Dinnertime cookbook, but I added a twist to both (nothing crazy, just yummy). I cut the recipe down to make enough for the two of us with leftovers.
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and seasoning your chicken breast with salt and pepper on both sides. Make the chicken how you like, but I did it perfect style (heat oil in a Dutch oven, brown for a could min on each side then bake for 25 min and rest for 5).
While the chicken is cooking, you can heat water to a boil in a medium sauce pan and cook your noodles (whatever kind you like, but I had bow tie so that’s what we used).
While those are both started, chop up about 1/2 an onion and mince 2 cloves of garlic (so I used all the garlic in the recipe, what can I say… We LOVE garlic!). For the bread, you can use whatever kind of bread you like (French roll, ciabatta, builollo, or Rosemary with olive oil French bread like we chose for tonight). Cut it in half long ways, then use regular butter softened (salted for better flavor, and margarine doesn’t work) and spread a lot of butter all over it. For half a loaf, I used a whole stick. Set aside till I tell you.
When the pasta is done to al dente, drain it and leave it till you are ready with the sauce. When the chicken comes it of the oven it has to rest for 5 minutes and then you can cut it into bite sized pieces. Once the chicken is done, lower the oven temp to 325 degrees for the bread when we are ready for it. While everything is kind of in process, go ahead and start your sauce in a skillet as follows…
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet. Add the garlic and stir till it is tender (just a minute). Add the onion and stir around for a few minutes till softened. Turn the burner off, then add 1/2 C vodka, then turn he heat back on to medium high heat and let it bubble up and cook for 2-3 minutes (he first time I made this I cheated this step and the sauce burned out throats because I didn’t cook off the alcohol). Turn the heat down to medium low and add 2/3 can of tomato sauce (was supposed to be 1/2 but I slipped and it turned out good so I’m going with it), then stir it around. Add in a good pinch of red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir and let simmer a few minutes. Timing for me worked out where this is when I put the bread on a rimmed baking sheet and put it in the oven for about 5 min (until all the butter melted into it). While that was melting, I added 1/2 C heavy cream to the sauce and stirred it around till it was well combined hen let it simmer while I turned the oven up to broil and watched he bread. It can burn fast once on broil, so this is definitely a step to watch closely. When get bread is done, take it out of the oven and set aside for a min while you mix the pasta, chicken, and sauce together. Dice up some basil for topping and get the Parmesan cheese ready too. Slice up he bread and serve it up.
We did the pasta mix, then topped with basil and Parmesan with the bread on the side. Although, the hubby liked the sauce so much he used the bread to mop up he sauce left on his plate…
Enjoy!
365 Meal Challenge 