Chicken Fettucine Alfredo

Tonight was definitely a comfort food kind of night. I spent the majority of the day studying for an upcoming exam in biochemistry. Although biochem is oh so exciting, I had to add a little fun to the night. Spencer and I decided to make a crowd favorite that we discovered last year. This is our modification of a Martha Stewart recipe that you can find here.

Here's the list of ingredients:

• 1 pound of chicken 
• 1 pound of fettucine
• 2 cups of seasoned bread crumbs
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 3/4 cups of Parmesan cheese (use a mix of Parm and Asiago if you're feeling adventurous) 

Chicken prep:

 Thaw the chicken and cut it into bit size nuggets. Toss them around in raw egg that's been beat. Fill a plastic bag with bread crumbs, add the chicken and shake. Cover the bottom of a large frying pan with oil and turn the heat to medium. Once the chicken has been thoroughly coated, place the pieces in the pan and let simmer. I prefer to really crisp up the chicken so I turn the heat down to medium low so I can get it nice and crispy, golden brown. After the chicken is done to your liking, put it aside in a serving bowl . 

Alfredo sauce: 

This is super, super easy. Take 2 cups (or 16 oz since that's apparently the popular unit of measurement for heavy cream) and pour it into a small saucepan. Peel 6 cloves of garlic (sorry Martha more garlic is always better than less) and throw them into the pan with the cream. Turn the heat on medium high and wait for the cream to start simmering. Word of caution here - the cream has a tendency to boil over so watch it! Once the cream has started to simmer, set a timer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Again, don't leave the cream simmering because you WILL be sorry :) Once the cream is done simmering, take it off the heat, remove the garlic, and mix in the Parmesan cheese and one tablespoon of butter. Now it ready to pour over the fettucine and chicken! Note: the sauce will not be thick yet, but don't worry! It'll thicken as it cools and make a nice thick coating all over the pasta and chicken. 

Fettucine prep:

Laugh if you want to that this section is necessary but when I tried this for the first time I was not a fettucine boiling pro...yet. When cooking fettucine (or pasta of any kind) don't depend on the box for cooking times. You have to cook it until its perfectly "al dente" which means that its soft on the outside with just a tiny bit of firmness to the inside. Cook it longer and it gets mushy, cook it less and it'll be hard. Once your pasta is ready, pour it into the serving dish with the chicken. 

Finally, once everything's mixed together, you're ready to serve. Make sure to sprinkle salt, pepper, and some extra Parmesan cheese on the top! The hardest part about this recipe is timing everything right so that the pasta finishes with the sauce. The chicken usually takes the longest so I always start it first. The sauce and fettucine both take about 10 minutes so start them around the same time. 

Here's to enjoying this delicious dish and the last few days of 2013!