Smoked Chicken Pasta

I have been thinking about this potential recipe for a long time. Now that I had some fresh smoked chicken, I dove in. My goal was to make a non-cream based white sauce that exploded with flavor. I think I nailed it.

I have a memory of living in a desert and working in the field as a young journalist on hot days, where I was told to ‘carbo-load’ to survive. Today was VERY HOT. So I leaned into that.

In two ounces of grass-fed butter I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic, I cooked this down, and then SLOWLY added 2 cups of A2 milk. With this cooking down I ground in a healthy amount of black pepper, a tablespoon of paprika and a tablespoon of Italian seasoning. I cooked this down for a few minutes.

Then I added 4 large, thin shaved mushrooms and a thin shaved baby red bell pepper. To this I added my pulled smoked chicken from my 4th of July smoke-fest.

While these cooked, I boiled a handful of linguini in a saucepan. When it was done, I moved one ladle of the pasta water into my sauce. I stirred it well, then drained the pasta.

I mixed a handful of fresh (from my garden) fine chopped parsley and basil into the sauce. Then I stirred in about 1/2 cup of fine grated parm.

And then I put the strained pasta into the sauce. With this mixed well, I plated the sauce/pasta, topped it with more parm, and more fresh chopped parsley and basil.

Incredible. One of the best things I ever worked up/cooked. Bursting with flavor, but not heavy with cream.

UPDATE:

First, my apologies.

I don’t write up the same recipe twice, and certainly not in the same week. But a friend (thank you Susan Mack) dropped off some fresh tomatoes this morning. I spent the day trying to think of something innovative to do with them.

But the same thought kept coming to me…I made this great smoked chicken pasta last week, and it was almost perfect, but it was missing something. With these tomatoes…I knew what it was. So tonight I dove in and re-did the dish (mostly). I didn’t have mushrooms or fresh red bell peppers, so I thin-sliced some onions and diced some jarred roasted red bell peppers.

This also kept me from going to the store…it is SO hot outside.

I de-thawed a pack of my vacuum sealed smoked chicken from last week. And I doubled down on the amount of fresh basil, since my garden is going crazy with basil.

I ‘cracked’ the tomatoes in a blistering olive oil before adding them to the mix. Otherwise, everything is pretty much the same as this… https://goodpointofview.com/2024/07/06/smoked-chicken-pasta/

I think this edit brings this dish home, and is very possibly one of the most scrumptious things I’ve ever made. Thank you again Susan Mack.

Also, a side note I didn’t mention before. My ‘system’ doesn’t like heavy cream, so the goal here was to use A2 milk and the flour to create a bechamel sauce to replace the cream normally used in a dish like this. It worked perfectly, no problems. Perhaps too much information, but for others who have this concern, I’m glad to share.