Mmmm, Chicken Alfredo. Yum. Wipe off your drool and continue reading.
I am a food blogger. That means I want to cook dinner every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Right? WRONG! I mean, most of the time I actually do, but sometimes I am just not in the mood to be over the stove all afternoon creating from scratch. Sometimes life just gets in the way and we need a little shortcut. Even when I don't feel like cooking, I do still prefer a home cooked meal, even if I didn't "create" it. Because I know these days are going to pop up every now and then, I try to keep a few things in the pantry to help me out when the need arises.
Some of my "emergency" foods are frozen pre-cooked chicken tenders for making wraps, macaroni & cheese (just add chopped chicken to it), smoked sausage (cooks up in minutes), jarred tomato sauce and jarred Alfredo sauce. The Alfredo sauce was on sale last week (bonus!) so I bought 2. Good thing, because, this one ended up being pretty darn good and I think we'll want to make this Chicken Alfredo Mushroom Pasta again soon.
In order to really speed things along, I chose to use angel hair pasta. I mean, angel hair takes like 5 minutes, so when time is an issue, it's my go to choice. I always have a box of angel hair in the pantry. Well, actually, on any given day, you can find multiple boxes of each linguine, penne, farfalle, ziti (w/ lines and w/out), lasagna noodles, jumbo shells rotini and elbows. Most of them opened.
So I've got to ask, am I the only one who has a stockpile of opened boxes of pasta in their cabinet?
I'd love to hear what you keep on hand for those nights when you just aren't feeling it.
Not So Homemade Chicken Alfredo & Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 T olive oil
- 1.5 lb boneless chicken cut into bite sized pieces
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 T butter
- 4 oz mushrooms fresh, chopped
- 1 jar 14.5 oz Alfredo sauce
- 12 oz angel hair pasta or pasta of choice
- ¼ C parsley freshly chopped
Instructions
- Prepare pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.
- While pasta is cooking, heat 1 T oil in a large skillet, over medium/high heat. Add chicken. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
- Allow chicken to brown, stir and continue to cook until no longer pink in the center (about 5-7 minutes). Remove chicken to dish and set aside.
- In the same skillet, melt 1 T butter. Add mushrooms. Cook, stirring often, until just softened.
- Add chicken back to pan.
- Pour Alfredo sauce over chicken/mushroom mixture.
- Add pasta to pan and parsley. Toss well to ensure an even coating of sauce.
Jeannie says
I'm a food blogger too, but I do a lot of "almost" home made recipes cause like you say, who wants to be stuck in the kitchen all the time?
Britni says
I'm so glad that someone else uses shortcuts!
foodyschmoody says
It kills me to admit it, but something has got to give every now and then.
Megan @ Our Pinteresting Family says
Sounds like a great dish!
Cynthia says
You're not the only one who uses shortcuts! We all have those days. Thank you for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. Hope to see you next time.
Kenneth Goh says
It is part and parcel of a blogger's life, we do shortcut and if blogged, disclosed accordingly. I do that too.. The pasta looks very good to me. Thanks for sharing at 4 seasons blog hop. Pinned.