fancy schmancy chicken alfredo

it all started with the anniversary dish at the red brick tavern in rosendale, a tiny, curious town in upstate new york.

yeah i basically copied that dish...

chicken alfredo is probably one of the easiest thing to throw together. with all the ready-made steps we now have available at our local grocer, dinner is nearly fast-food. sure the outcome may not be authentic but it took you about 40 minutes and the kids shut up, right? aha..

 

the other night my mother requested i cook dinner, specifically the aforementioned dish. she didn't know how to cook it, which baffles me because my mother is a great cook herself. what does it consist of? hell, you could boil some pasta, fry some chicken, throw it all in a bowl with a jar of alfredo sauce and call it a day.

well, i could have done that, sure. but i wanted fancy alfredo. and i love spinach. and mushrooms. and tomatoes. so the boyfriend and i went on a little joyride to pick up some grape tomatoes, a bag of spinach, pasta and sliced button mushrooms. and garlic bread. because it is awesome.

the first thing i did was saute the mushrooms (in a covered pan) with some olive oil at a medium heat. when they became soft and fragrant, i added the spinach i chopped earlier. once the spinach softened, i poured in the grape tomato halves. it might have been too soon, seeing as the tomatoes weren't as fresh as i would have liked at the end of the meal. the aroma wafting up form the pan was mouthwatering, literally. the house smelled warm and mushroomy. yes, you can totally smell temperature. shush.

after a short while, i took the chicken breast out of the package, danced a little, rinsed them, patted them dry with a paper towel, and proceeded to over-season. they didn't need much, seeing as they would absorb flavor from the mushrooms, but i'm really good at over-seasoning. feeling a bit moses-like, i parted the liquids and slid the chicken breast into the pan, then buried it under a sea of green, red and brown. they can be flipped, but it's not quite necessary. keep the pan covered and on a low low heat so everything cooks nice and slowly.

hopefully at this point you haven't forgotten the pasta, as i normally seem to do. being in the kitchen with me is a whole lot of "oh crap" and "uh oh" with various unmentionable phrases thrown in for good measure. i stood there for a good moment, holding drained penne rigate, trying to figure out how i want to combine this all and prepare it. this sounds simple, really, but it's not. usually around this time my boyfriend pours himself another drink while shaking his head at me. damnit, this is an art! don't patronize me!

about 3 hours later i finally poured the pasta into a pyrex casserole dish, threw the breast on top, and poured in the (hopefully not burnt) spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and alfredo sauce (of which we added more because it wasn't saucy enough for my liking).

give it a stir, and stick 'er in the oven at about 400 until it bubbles. and viola! noms!

enjoy the pictures :) he only took about 72 of them...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 voila! noms!