Every few weeks I get to feeling adventurous in the kitchen, and I make something completely by the seat of my pants – no recipe, no plan, just start by chopping something and see where I end up. Most of the time, this results in mediocre food. Occasionally it results in something really awful. But every once in a while, the result is absolutely fantastic – a dish you might see in a great restaurant or on one of those over-the-top shows on the food network, like (my favorite) Iron Chef America.
Sunday night was one of those adventurous nights, and one of the rare ones where the result was marvelously good. Here’s what I did:
Started with a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. I decided to add some Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Seasoned Salt to the garlic, and before I knew it the worcestershire sauce was out and I mashed it all into a rub. A splash of lemon juice completed the rub, which was applied liberally to the chicken.
I started some chicken stock on the back burner, and then coated a skillet with olive oil. I seared the chicken in the skillet, then put it into a baking dish with a bath of chicken stock. I wanted something else in it, and Marcia suggested nuts. She chopped a bunch of almonds, peanuts, and cashews and I put about 3/4 of the nuts in the baking dish with the chicken and stock. Into the oven at 350 degrees.
With some more chicken stock, I started some Fettucini noodles, and once the stock was boiling I tossed in the rest of the nuts. This permeated the noodles with both chicken flavor and nuttiness.
When the chicken finally came out of the oven (of course it needed to be basted several times with the stock in the pan to keep from becoming dry), I dished the pasta onto plates, put some oregano on the pasta, and a piece of chicken on top of the pasta bed. The whole thing then got one more spoonful of the baked chicken stock, and was covered in the chopped nuts that were in the bottom of the baking dish.
Moment of truth…
Delicious! This is definitely a course to keep and use for company at some point in the future.
Oh… last but not least… this delicious pasta/chicken dish was served with the new Cranberry Sierra Mist. What is it about cranberrys and poultry that make such a great combination?
What—no picture?