Week 19: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo is arguably one of the most iconic Italian dishes around. You can hardly visit an Italian restaurant that doesn't have the dish on the menu. But to be completely honest--because what else is there?--the typical pasta-and-cream-sauce can get a little boring. That's where creative and delicious variations come in. I've decided (as of last night) that cream-based pastas are my specialty. The zucchini pasta carbonara and fettuccine gorgonzola come to mind fairly rapidly. Anyway, this dish only continued that trend. With the perfectly succulent chicken and crunchy-but-tender broccoli, the alfredo was anything but boring.

I obtained this recipe online when I failed to find it in one of my cookbooks (initially, I wanted to make the recipe specifically because I knew it could be found in one of my books, but for some reason, it eluded me). The version here is based on a Kraft recipe, and it was featured in the December 2009 issue of EveryDay with Rachel Ray magazine. The web address is http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/easy-chicken-broccoli-alfredo/. The recipe takes about 45 minutes to make, start to finish.

"Ingredients

• 8 ounces (1/2 of 1-lb pkg.) fettuccine or spaghetti, uncooked [really, you can use whatever pasta you like best]

• 2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped into little pieces

• 1/4cup Kraft® Zesty Italian Dressing [I wasn't a huge fan of having to buy a specific item just for this recipe, but it's actually a great dressing that goes well on the salads I served with the dish, so it's not a bad purchase]

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces [about 4-5 chicken tenderloins will do, as well]

• 1 2/3cups milk [your choice if it's skim, 1%, 2%, or whole...I might use whole next time because the sauce was just a bit too thin, even with 2%]

• 4 ounces (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) Philadelphia® Cream Cheese, cubed

• 1/4cup Kraft® Grated Parmesan Cheese [seriously, just ignore this. Please use freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and save yourself money]

• 1/2teaspoon dried basil leaves [I went way overboard with the basil, using almost a full tablespoon or more; I think it turned out just fine]"

Optional: zest of one lemon (highly recommended) 

Directions

1. Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking time. Drain pasta mixture.
2. Meanwhile, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally [I would put a cover loosely on the pan to encourage the chicken to cook through evenly]. Stir in milk, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and basil [and lemon zest, if using]. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook 1 to 2 min. or until sauce is well blended and heated through [I had to cook it an additional 3-4 minutes beyond this to allow the sauce to thicken more].
3. Add chicken mixture to pasta mixture; mix lightly.

Tip

• Substitute frozen peas, chopped red peppers, or any of your favorite vegetables for the broccoli. [I second this suggestion because it means you can make the dish completely vegetarian if you wish. Just add a second vegetable instead of the chicken.]"

Note: As far as sauce thickness goes, I didn't really know how to correct for it except to cook a little longer. This improved the consistency greatly, but I still didn't achieve the nice sauciness I was hoping for. I think other suggestions would be to use a milk with more fat in it, to use heavy cream in place of milk (but decrease the amount of liquid you use), add some flour to thicken the sauce, use less milk in general, and/or use more cheese (I did a little bit of this, too, in addition to the longer cooking time).

One thing to change for next time is that I forgot to cube the cream cheese. It is very hard to work with if you skip that step, so I would say to follow the directions more closely than I did. I have noticed that I am doing this more lately (by "this," I mean ignoring directions). I think that's a good sign in some respects and bad in others. For instance, it means that I am being more creative and learning to cook by my own instincts, but it also means that I am becoming more careless of the advice of other cooks, even when it is written right in front of my eyes. The results of this heedlessness are not--so far--too serious, but I definitely think there are some instances when it's important to follow instructions as carefully as possible.

Other than that, I wouldn't say that I would change anything. It might be fun to try different kinds of Italian dressings to see how the flavor changes. At first blush, the Zesty Italian seems very strong, but since you are only using 1/4 cup, the flavor is noticeable and pleasant but nowhere near overpowering. It was a very nice touch. I also enjoyed the lemon because it helped make the dish taste fresh and light, as it did with the chicken that accompanied last week's polenta dish.

Overall, we all really liked the dish. I liked how simple and relatively quick it was (it was another crazy week, so simple and quick was perfect). Dad liked it so much that he had more than one serving and had to tell himself, "I gotta stop eating this," toward the end of the meal. That's some pretty high praise, in my book. I would say that this dish is pretty filling, so it's not really a traditional summer meal. It was fine because of the lemon, but I would say that it is better suited to colder months when thick, hot comfort food is most needed. Despite that, I would call this week's meal a success, and I will definitely make it again sometime.

Pasta, salad, and bread. Is there any more perfect meal? Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering.

In other news, we finally got our first farm share! It is very fun for me to go to the Mill City Farmer's Market in downtown Minneapolis every two weeks with Mom and pick up the fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruits from Loon Organics in Hutchinson, MN. This time, we got some of the first results of the harvest, including such delicacies as fresh oregano, red radishes, kale, long-stem spinach, dried black beans, mixed greens, green onions, a whole basil plant, and salad turnips. Now, most people have never heard of salad turnips, but they are one of the best foods on the planet. They are basically a white radish with a very mild, slightly sweet flavor. Their flesh is slightly crunchy with a soft bite. They are almost like a softer water chestnut. They are best eaten fresh in salads (hence the name), but they are also great in stir-fries and such. You can see a picture of the sliced salad turnips in the photo I took of this week's dish. The salad on the plate is composed of regular grocery-store tomatoes and cucumbers along with the salad turnips on a bed of the mixed greens and fresh long-stem spinach. I love summer salads because they always feature these high-quality ingredients, and they cause winter salads to pale in comparison. If only it could be summer here 365 days a year...(ha ha)