Here’s a recipe I’ve actually made before–it’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those. When I was about 8 or 9, my mom decided that she, my dad, and I were going to take turns making dinner each week. One of the recipes I actually planned for and made (before this grand plan inevitably fell apart) was this one: 12-7: Fettuccini with Creamy Chicken.
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I probably was drawn to this one because my favorite meal as a kid was fettuccini Alfredo, and this one seems relatively similar (to an 9-year old). I also remember being fascinated with the fact that I got to use alcohol in something.
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As you can see from the ingredients, it’s not that close to Alfredo-–it needs a creamier, cheesier base. This one’s got a tangier, drier taste to it than traditional Alfredo.
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Ingredients. I subbed chicken thighs for chicken breast (personal preference) and white wine vinegar for sherry (didn’t have any). Note the ground pepper/salt in Pyrex containers–I prefer this for cooking with because it’s easier to measure/pinch when it’s like this, not to mention it tastes fresher.
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Sliced-up chicken. Gory.
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Chicken cooking in the large foreground pan while the fettuccini works its way down in the background. I usually break large noodles like that in half, but I felt like leaving it long for this recipe.
I was somewhat upset that after I started cooking this, I noticed that the recipe card calls for fettuccini, but uses a curlier type of pasta in its cover photograph. What’s more, they use the right pasta in the instruction photograph. Where I was going with that was that I felt like leaving the noodles long to protest the miscommunication/bad picture, which makes no sense, but it’s just pasta so who cares. Let’s move on.
4/13/19 Edit: While doing some clean-up and editing on old posts, I noticed that the cover photo for this recipe is the EXACT same photo used for 12-17: Curly Pasta with Chicken. Either there was a layout/printing error or they were lazy–but I just noticed it now. Mystery solved of why the photo pasta doesn’t match the description.
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Chicken out and held in a bowl on the side while the onion cooks. Fettuccini continues to work its way down in the pot.
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All together now–here’s why you use the big pan. It gets mighty full by the end.
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Here’s another reason I used the big pan–I overshot a bit on my chicken and used more than the recipe called for. Since I already had extra chicken and onion, I upped the rest of it as well and stored the extra sauce away in the fridge. It only calls for a cup of half-and-half, but this is clearly a bit more. Just saying.
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Sauce as it’s finishing, with nice pepper specks in there. Like I said, invest in a coffee/spice grinder and grind your own spices. It makes a big difference and it’s something professional kitchens do. I bought this one on sale from a big-box store for like $20, and it’s been worth it just in the short time I’ve had it.
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Final shot. Even if the recipe tastes largely the same as it did 20 years ago, at least my plating has gotten slightly better. 🙂
Grade: A-