Blackened Chicken Alfredo

I've had this recipe bookmarked for a very long time. I'd say at least a year. So long I don't even remembered adding it to my favorites. So... yeah. A while.

Usually on a Wednesday or Thursday night, I plan our menu for the week once Graham leaves for week. This week our new puppy distracted me (and not in a fun "awww, puppies are so cute!" kind of way... more like an annoying, whimpering, whining, waking me up at 6:00am kind of way). So, I set out to plan our menu for the week about 20 minutes before we went grocery shopping. I saw this in my favorites and decided to go for it.

It was SO. GOOD.

I had never made homemade alfredo sauce before this. Making a cream sauce was always intimidating to me. Now I know there is absolutely nothing to it. You just have to be very aware of your time. It gets thicker, the longer it sets, so when it's done, you need to be ready to go!

This really was delicious and is definitely going into my repetoire.


Blackened Chicken Alfredo
(Adapted from Elly Says Opa, which is from Michael Ruhlman) 
Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 1 cup cream
• salt & pepper
• Cajun seasoning (I've been using Emeril's blend for years)
• 4 Tbsp. butter, cut into about 8 small pieces.
• 12 ounces of pasta
• 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese; plus more for a garnish.
• Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. When boiling, add salt to flavor the water, and then add the pasta.
2. In a small skillet or a grill pan, heat olive oil in the bottom. Coat the chicken breasts in the cajun seasoning, and cook thoroughly. When finished cooking, move to a cutting board and let rest until the pasta is done.
3. In a pan big enough to toss the pasta, bring the cream, salt, pepper and cajun seasoning to a simmer, then lower the heat and whisk in the butter, adding one piece at a time. Turn the heat off.
4. Boil and strain your pasta. Toss the pasta and cheese in the cream. Add a little more cream if it has thickened too much.
5. Mound pasta on each individual plate, top with sliced chicken and serve. 

And just because, here is a picture of the new puppy. Her name is Hermione. Buddy is not impressed.