August Secret Recipe Club: Bacon Chicken Alfredo Pasta

Bacon, cheese, tomatoes, pasta, and chicken. Did I mention the cheese sauce?

Hello August. Or should I say goodbye? You've come and go so quickly. Is it really the fourth Monday? It's a good thing I remember it was time to make my Secret Recipe Club pick last night!

I was tickled when I got my assignment this month! I was assigned Fantastical Sharing ofRecipes and she had me last month! Too fun! I perused her sight and was immediately drawn to her Bacon Chicken Alfredo Pasta. It doesn't hurt that I always put bacon in my alfredo! I did enjoy that she had a different take and make it into a cheddar and parmesan sauce instead of just a parmesan sauce! I added a twist and replaced the parmesan with asiago. Feel free to use your favorite tomato as well. My cherry tomato plant is between batches at the moment, and yesterday morning I found this guy. Grr. It's going to be a bit longer before I have new tomatoes.

This recipe looks complicated from its long ingredient list, but don't be discouraged. It's easy to make and delicious!

Bacon Chicken Alfredo Pasta

adapted from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes, originally from Get Off Your Butt and Bake!

Ingredients:

2 chicken bone-in chicken breasts, baked at 400ºF for 45 minutes or until done (or leftover rotisserie chicken)

1 cup diced ham

1 tablespoon brown sugar

4 slices of your favorite bacon

1 tomato of your choice

1 crown of broccoli

8 ounces pasta of your choosing (elbow macaroni works well)

Shaved or grated parmesan cheese, for passing

Sauce:

1 cup milk

1 cup chicken broth (I make mine with water and chicken bouillon)

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

1 cup grated asiago cheese

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

From a cold skillet over medium heat, fry bacon until crispy (or your desired done-ness), place on paper towels to drain and set aside. Remove all but one teaspoon of bacon grease from the skillet and add diced ham. Sprinkle a tablespoon of brown sugar on top of the ham, and toss until the ham is golden and the brown sugar has caramelized. Remove ham from skillet and set aside. Add broccoli and saute quickly until brown on the edges. Chop or shred the chicken and chop the tomato. Set aside.

Over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add 2 tablespoons flour, salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder and whisk together with the butter until bubbly. Continue whisking, and slowly add the milk, cream, and the chicken broth. Whisk constantly to prevent lumps. Continue whisking until the sauce has thickened. Turn heat to low, and add the grated cheddar and Parmesan cheese, one handful at a time, stirring constantly. Make sure the cheese is melted before your next addition. Once melted and mixed thorougly, turn your heat to the lowest temperature and cover. Prepare your pasta until al dente. Drain well.

Plate the pasta, and serve the sauce over the top. Crumble your bacon on top of the sauce, and also top with ham, broccoli, tomatoes and grated parmesan cheese.

You can choose to serve it all in one dish or as a pasta with customizable toppings. 

THOUGHTS:

My word I have a lot of dirty dishes! Next time I'll combine it all into one dish (minus the tomatoes) and serve it all mixed up to prevent the use of so many bowls! In the meantime, it was easy and delicious! The sugared ham was a nice foil to the broccoli and cheese. The tomatoes brightened things up and kept the dish from being too heavy. Overall, it was great!

I have a lot of leftovers, and I'm still debating what to do with them. I've combined everything into one dish (except the tomatoes of course) and am contemplating eating them cold for lunch tomorrow (yes, I like mac and cheese cold). OR I could put it in a baking dish, crumble more bacon on top with a bit more cheese and bake it for forty-five minutes at 350. One pot mac and cheese! Many thanks to Fantastical Sharing of Recipes for sharing this outstanding dish!

VERDICT:

Not-bad-and-very-filling: 1 vote*

Hey-that's-pretty-good: 1 vote

*Bender's vote changed the next day. Now it's more along the lines of Man-this-is-awesome-it's terrific-you-should-always-serve-it-all-mixed-up-after-the-sauce-has-thickened!

Yummy cheesy goodness!

November Secret Recipe Club: Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

It's Secret Recipe Club time reveal day again! I have no idea how it crept up on me so quickly. I'm quite embarrassed that I have not posted a single thing since the last Secret Recipe Club reveal! Oops. Things are moving along quite quickly here. Bender and I only have one more month in Winston-Salem and have been taking advantage of what little time we have left to spend with our friends. Alas, that means things like the my Fabulously Fun Food blog have gotten the cold shoulder. Perhaps when we are in Nashville I will have a bit more time to dedicate to this blog. After all, it has provided me with the support and outlet I needed when I was living in Germany. So, stay tuned after the new year for more frequent updates.

Egg Linguine turned Fettuccine with Italian Sausage and Zucchini Tomato Sauce

Homemade noodles in homemade tomato sauce.

Making pasta for the Daring Cooks challenge gave me the confidence I needed to try it again. And so I did. On a weeknight. When Bender and I were both hungry. Maybe it wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever had, but it ended up not being a terrible one. If you only ask me.

I was determined not to over-flour the dough this time. The Pappardelle as so difficult to roll out, and I had such a headache while doing it that it was actually a quite unpleasant experience. The noodles were pretty thick and chewy, not a favorite around here, despite Bender’s comment that they were well made (I’m beginning to think he might have said that in hopes that I wouldn’t make pasta again). Overall, I was okay with the final dish, but not pleased. So I had to make pasta again and make it tasty, right? Silly me, having to prove to myself that I can make something properly.

Daring Cooks July Challenge: Homemade Pasta!

Pappardelle with Braised Beef Ragu

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

Whoa. I have to make pasta? Are you crazy? It was like pulling teeth to get me to make gnocchi.

Double Take: Gnocchi inspired by One Hungry Chef

Potatoes on a salt bed, ready for the oven

Gnocchi is one of those foods I keep seeing everywhere. It keeps popping up on blogs I frequent, it's on menus everywhere, and I see it in the stores all the time. I've ordered it a few times in restaurants, but never totally been blown away by it. But all the blogs say it is so much better homemade, so I gave in and decided to try it. And Tabitha agreed we should do it for a Double Take. 

One of the common ways I've seen it served is in a gorgonzola sauce. While the sauce was tasty, it was missing an acid to cut the cloyingness from the cheese and cream. I think even a few grape tomatoes served on top would have helped it immensely. Either way, I was determined not to serve it with a creamy sauce what-so-ever. And I had to think about what Bender would want. He's not a potato dumpling fan, so much so that I avoided using the word dumpling at all costs with him. I didn't want him to think it was going to be like kloesse, German potato dumplings. 

Double Take: Golden Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is a staple in our house (er, tiny apartment). I’ve tried over a dozen recipes and generally come back to two: my grandmother’s recipe and a cheese sauce based recipe. The recipe for Golden Macaroni and Cheese from the all-new ultimate Southern Living Cookbook looked most similar to my grandmother’s as it does not require a roux. But like my grandmother’s, it looked unassuming and boring. But I was also interested in finding a non-roux recipe that did not call for eggs (I made the mistake of serving that recipe to someone who was allergic to eggs once… eek!), so I thought we should give this one a day.

The original recipe made 8 servings, so I decided to halve the recipe since it was just the two of us. At the last minute I discovered that I did not have quite enough Cheddar, so I supplemented with Parmesan rather than going to the store. The second time I made this recipe, I forgot to use Parmesan and discovered the Parmesan gives it that lift that brings this recipe over the top to fabulous. The recipe listed here is what I used the first time I made it.

Grilled Chicken and Pasta in Fresh Basil-Cream Sauce

Remember my Ravioli Double Take? The sauce had potential, but it just fell short of the mark (both in taste and quantity). After reading your comments, I decided that I really need to revamp the sauce and give it a chance. So I did. Thank you readers for convincing me to try this one again!

I knew I didn't want to try more ravioli, but I also wanted to stay away from my normal pastas: macaroni, tagliatelle, and spaghetti. And, surprisingly, I stumbled across orechiette when I was looking for a grill. Crazy, huh? I grabbed the orechiette and wandered over to the chocolate section. I found a bar of Lindt salted chocolate, and feeling adventurous, I grabbed it. Hubby has never been so surprised to like a chocolate before, claiming whomever came up with the idea to add salt to chocolate was a genius. I concur.

Double Take: Ravioli in Basil-Cream Sauce

 Mushroom Ravioli in Basil-Cream Sauce

EDIT: To see an updated version of this sauce, complete with recipe, check out this post!

MacCain and Cheese

I don't have a recipe for you today, but I do have a picture! I'm making mac and cheese for dinner tonight and had to go to my original post for it to get the recipe. While there, I remembered that I never posted the delightful picture of my Red, White, and Blue Mac and Cheese that I not-very-cleverly dubbed MacCain and Cheese for the 2008 election night. Well my folks, Meghna was kind enough to send me the picture, so you get to see it. Despite it's gross appearance, it was actually quite tasty!

Check back on Wednesday for this month's Daring Cooks Challenge and Thursday for the next edition of Double Take! 

Good Ol' Mac and Cheese

I grew up on Velveeta Shells and Cheese.  I loved the stuff.  Gooey, smooth, a cute shaped pasta... I was in heaven.  My friends' moms were serving blue box with the powdered cheese.  Edible, of course, but it just didn't call to me... besides, it was a boring old macaroni noodle, not a shell!  And then my grandmother served something completely different.  A baked macaroni and cheese.  I just couldn't understand why she had to put it into the oven.  With boring old elbow macaroni as well.  I couldn't stand the stuff.  That's right, my grandmother made from scratch macaroni and cheese and I didn't like it.  Give me shells and cheese any day.