PPN: Cajun Chicken Pasta

How was your weekend?  Ours was good - Saturday we did some cleaning around the house and yesterday we went to a Christmas tree farm and picked out a tree.  We ended up with a 7 foot tall Frasier - and it's beautiful.  I'll post pictures later this week - promise!

If you've noticed, since I've started blogging again I'm less into trying new recipes from cookbooks than I am from throwing our meals together.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but so far we haven't had a complete disaster.

One of the things the kids really like is Cajun chicken pasta.  I've blogged about the recipe I used to use here, but have since changed things up a bit and I thought I'd share.

Now the basics I use are still the same - season the chicken in a Cajun spice mixture - we like Tony Chachere's spice blend but this time I used the spice blend I had made for our spicy chicken bites last month.  Either one is delicious.  The biggest change I made was getting rid of the heavy cream.

The original recipe uses 1 cup of heavy cream (though I've substituted half and half and even fat free half and half for it) but recently I discovered Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cooking Cream.  One of the 15 ounce tubs is good enough (with about a half cup of stock added to it) to make the sauce good for 4-6 people.  This night I had used the Tomato and Basil flavor but I think any of the flavors would work well.

As for the vegetables you throw in - I like using Anaheim chile peppers and onions but it's also good if you add some broccoli.  The best part of the whole meal, though, is that it's quick to put together and I get no complaints about it.  

Because this is Cajun Chicken Pasta, I'm submitting this to this week's PPN hosted by Rachel over at The Crispy Cook.  Head over to her blog on Friday and see what the food blogging community has come up with this week.  Or head to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night site and browse through what everyone's been cooking up these past 243 weeks!

Cajun Chicken Pasta Revisited

• 1 - 1/2 pounds chicken, cut into bite size pieces
• Cajun Seasoning
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1 Anaheim chile, sliced
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 1 container Philadelphia Cooking Creme
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 12 ounces pasta - any shape

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook as directed on your package; drain.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the butter.  Add the chicken and sprinkle liberally with the Cajun seasoning.  Saute the chicken in butter until almost tender (5 to 7 minutes).
3. Add the chile pepper and onion.  Saute and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender.  Reduce heat.
4. Add cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and stock.  Let simmer while the pasta is cooking.  Add the cooked pasta, toss and heat through.

Comments

[Rachel @ The Crispy Cook]

Thank you for sending in this scrumptious recipe to Presto Pasta Nights this week!

[Ruth]

Great spin on a creamy pasta. Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Nights. It's always fantastic when you do.