Don’s Parm Chicken Alfredo

Don has been cooking his ‘pasta’ for years, but hasn’t posted it because in never quite felt complete. In the past month he’s cooked two versions of it which were home runs. While not exactly his ‘usual’ as the base, the thought is certainly there.

Ingredients:

Two or three chicken breasts

Vigo parm bread crumbs

Craft grated parm/assagio cheese (refrigerated)

Vegetable or olive oil

Fresh ground pepper

Margerine (we like Earth Balance)

Dried or Fresh basil

Milk (we use 2%)

Pasta (we like Barella’s Angel Hair Plus multi-grain)

Corn starch

2 whisked Eggs

Instructions:

Cook the chicken. Put a thin amount of oil in a large skillet and bring it up to heat. Put your chicken breast down on a cutting board, one at a time, cover with two layers of waxed paper and pound them till about 1/2 inch thick. You want a really nice crisp golden brown coating, much like fried chicken.

Put out a plate and mix 1 cup of bread crumbs, 1 cup of parm and grind in some black pepper and mix.

Put the eggs in a bowl, wisk, and then coat the chicken breast. Transfer to bread crumb/cheese mix and press in the mixture until coated.

When the oil is at temperature (a drop of water crackles and pops) add the chicken and cook a few minutes on each side. Check for done-ness. Put aside on a plate with paper towel to drain the oil. These are actually a good meal on their own, and we just re-heat them for the pasta a couple days later.

Pasta and sauce

We use Barella’s PLUS multi-grain angel hair pasta, which cooks in 6 minutes. Put in a teaspoon of olive oil while the water heats to keep the pasta separate. Measuring pasta is tough, we make this for two. So if you make an OK sign with your hand (finger tip and thumb tip together), the whole is about enough for 4. Move your fore-finger down one nuckle, and you have a space big enough for pasta for two.

Start the sauce. We are shooting for a healthier sauce than a tradition alfredo, so we use 2% milk. Before adding it to heat, take about 1 cup of milk with 1 teaspoons of corn starch and mix them together till dissolved. In a small sauce pan, heat up a tablespoon of margerine. Stir in the milk/starch mix and continue to stir while it thickens. At the very end, thicken with a little more parm..mayby 1/8 to 1/4 cup to keep it from being runny.

When the pasta is done, drain it, add 1 tablespoon of margerine and stir to keep from sticking. You can use olive oil here too. Add about 2 tablespoons of fried basil, or a handful of fresh chopped basil. Stir to coat everything, we do this over a low heat so the pasta doesn’t cool too much. Toss in 1/4 cup of parm and stir to mix.

Assemble

Put the pasta on a plate.

Slice the chicken in 1/4 inch strips and place on top of pasta

Pour sauce on top of chicken

Grind a little more pepper on top

Sprinkle with a little parm cheese.

Don just cooked this for the first time a few minutes ago and said “it’s one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.”