Tonight It Is Chicken Alfredo

[First off, I have to apologize, that I am breaking my own rule as far as posting something new before I finish my NY trip.  Obviously, I haven't finished the last of my posts regarding that, but here goes a new one off that subject.  I have a few sitting and waiting for me to post and I need to get on with them and finish up the The Big Apple trip when I can.  Hope you enjoy! The New Day Everyday Woman Has Returned to Her Roots!]

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What’s fun about coming home at night after a grueling day at the office and one of the first dilemmas you face is, what’s for supper? When you are the supper-maker, it falls on your shoulders to figure it out. A lot of the time when I am stumped, I will unfortunately ask my husband what he wants. I usually, I’m sorry, I always get the same answer – I don’t care. But he does. He will moan, make faces – much like a 6-year-old when told he has to eat his spinach before he can have some ice cream -- and then say "again?" Okay, well at least I made the first step in asking him. He will tell you he would eat pizza every night, but truly admittedly he won’t – unless it is Rocky Rococo’s.  Consequently, I’m left to the task of answering the age-old question.

Be that as it may, even though I am arm-loaded with a vast library full of cookbooks (I’m not kidding here either – I have more than 120 hardcover recipe books, plus many, many soft cover cookbooks, AND my own collection of large binders, sorted by food type, which contains probably 1,000+ recipes), I still have problems trying to get creative on any given night. I have tried the route of planning, cooking on the weekend and then pulling it out to serve like I had cooked all day long ala June Cleaver; but the pretty picture just isn’t that pretty in reality. My hubby is picky, although he will say he isn’t, and to be perfectly honest, sometimes I’m not in the mood for whatever is planned for that evening. So, instead I capitulate to my yearnings to decipher what it should be tonight. 

The other night, after some contemplation and not much time, it was Chicken Alfredo. Sometimes I will have some leftover chicken to use for this recipe, but it just so happened after a recent trip to the store, I had picked up a package of deli-roasted Oscar Mayer chicken breast pieces. This is one of the easiest ingredients to use for Chicken Alfredo. The rest is up to you on how you want serve it. Egg noodles seem to be a big staple in my house. My husband tends to like them better than fettuccine noodles, angel hair, etc.

I will confess to you now, unless I am forced to measure out pasta, when it comes to my recipes, they are usually measured by handfuls, or jar full. My pasta when bought is then opened and placed into containers for storage. And that is how I tend to know how much to put into any given recipe.

In this case, I put on a large pot of water, salted (hmmmm....good tablespoon), brought to a boil and then dumped in about 4 good handfuls of noodles. As that was cooking, I placed a small frying pan on the stove, turned to medium heat, added about a tablespoon of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and then placed the whole package of deli chicken pieces in to warm. Any larger pieces, I cut down to size. Next eventually turning the heat to medium low. After the noodles were cooked, I placed them in a colander to drain (do not rinse!). Using the same pot, I placed the butter and cream cheese to melt over medium low heat; then began adding the cream/milk and other ingredients. Once okay to taste, I placed the noodles in to coat and then added the chicken; placed in a serving bowl and then sprinkled with paprika.

One side note to this recipe – I sometimes use real garlic, taking cloves and mincing them and then sauteing in EVOO. In this case with lack of time, I use the garlic powder which is a big, big staple in my kitchen for fast recipes.

Total time spent for this meal – 30 minutes. Not bad for timing and until the end, I wasn’t slaving over the stove making this either. Below is my alfredo sauce recipe. Enjoy!

Alfredo Sauce
½ cup butter, melted
1 pkg (8 oz.) Cream cheese, room temp. (or put in a microwave for 1 minute)
2 cups half-and-half (or I used skim milk to reduce the fat)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 T. garlic powder (or 2 garlic cloves, minced, sauteed)
½ tsp. Black pepper
1 tsp. Perfect Pinch Rotisserie Chicken seasoning
salt to taste