Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
OK... I never make posts like this on this blog. But I just can't help it tonight.
I love cooking. It is a passion I've had for a long time. Over the past couple of weeks I haven't done a lot of cooking, partly because I spend all day cooking at work, partly because I'm usually too tired to put a lot of effort into dinner, but mostly because I'm too broke to buy anything that goes into making really awesome stuff.
Well today I was craving bacon all day (part of that might have to do with smelling bacon cook at work), but I didn't really want to just have bacon for dinner, and a full breakfast for dinner sounded like too much work... and very boring.
I looked around at Pinterest for a while and ran across some really great chicken bacon ranch pasta recipes. Unfortunately I didn't have the ingredients for it (I'm severely lacking in ranch).
Innovator that I am, I decided to come up with a similar recipe featuring a homemade garlic cheese sauce instead of ranch.
This is probably the most unhealthy/delicious thing I have ever cooked (except my garlic cheese biscuits which I claim to be better than Red Lobster's).
I can't share a recipe because I honestly don't really measure anything... which caused me to make far too much cheese sauce. But I am going to share as much as I can so that if you ever feel like indulging you may take part in the wonder I have created.
I used a frozen chicken breast (any kind of boneless chicken will do, you could in fact use leftovers from another chicken dish if you wanted.
About 4 strips of uncooked bacon.
Enough pasta for a single serving, I used spaghetti because it was all I had, but I think it would be good with penne.
For the garlic cheese sauce I used milk, butter, flour, garlic powder, and shredded cheddar cheese. I'm not sure how much of each I used, but I'm sure if you can't eyeball it you could look up a similar recipe online to get a feel for ratios.
For the chicken and bacon I fried them in a skillet. I really should have chopped up the chicken before hand because it would have cooked faster, but it wasn't a huge problem. I also added some sour cream on top of the chicken to keep it from drying out while cooking (plain yogurt/greek yogurt would work just as well for a healthier option... that cheese sauce though...).
I cooked the pasta just like you normally would.
I combined the ingredients (except the cheese) for the sauce in a small sauce pan and heated it slowly so it thickened and added milk and butter as needed to thin it out or soak up all the flour. After the sauce was pretty thick I added a little more milk and then a some cheese. I didn't use a huge amount of garlic or cheese because I really wanted the flavors of the bacon and chicken to shine through. The cheese sauce was honestly more for texture than for flavor.
I don't know if people like these kinds of blog posts, or if you prefer my opinion pieces, or perhaps there's other things you would like to see me write about... or maybe you really don't care. Looking at the stats for my blog (and counting the comments and compliments people give me on a regular basis) there are enough people reading it that I feel like I should start asking for requests for things for me to write about!
If there is more interest in me sharing recipes I can start writing things down and making them more specific.
If there's a certain issue you'd like to see my opinion on, let me know. I really enjoy blogging, and writing in general!
I love cooking. It is a passion I've had for a long time. Over the past couple of weeks I haven't done a lot of cooking, partly because I spend all day cooking at work, partly because I'm usually too tired to put a lot of effort into dinner, but mostly because I'm too broke to buy anything that goes into making really awesome stuff.
Well today I was craving bacon all day (part of that might have to do with smelling bacon cook at work), but I didn't really want to just have bacon for dinner, and a full breakfast for dinner sounded like too much work... and very boring.
I looked around at Pinterest for a while and ran across some really great chicken bacon ranch pasta recipes. Unfortunately I didn't have the ingredients for it (I'm severely lacking in ranch).
Innovator that I am, I decided to come up with a similar recipe featuring a homemade garlic cheese sauce instead of ranch.
This is probably the most unhealthy/delicious thing I have ever cooked (except my garlic cheese biscuits which I claim to be better than Red Lobster's).
I can't share a recipe because I honestly don't really measure anything... which caused me to make far too much cheese sauce. But I am going to share as much as I can so that if you ever feel like indulging you may take part in the wonder I have created.
I used a frozen chicken breast (any kind of boneless chicken will do, you could in fact use leftovers from another chicken dish if you wanted.
About 4 strips of uncooked bacon.
Enough pasta for a single serving, I used spaghetti because it was all I had, but I think it would be good with penne.
For the garlic cheese sauce I used milk, butter, flour, garlic powder, and shredded cheddar cheese. I'm not sure how much of each I used, but I'm sure if you can't eyeball it you could look up a similar recipe online to get a feel for ratios.
For the chicken and bacon I fried them in a skillet. I really should have chopped up the chicken before hand because it would have cooked faster, but it wasn't a huge problem. I also added some sour cream on top of the chicken to keep it from drying out while cooking (plain yogurt/greek yogurt would work just as well for a healthier option... that cheese sauce though...).
I cooked the pasta just like you normally would.
I combined the ingredients (except the cheese) for the sauce in a small sauce pan and heated it slowly so it thickened and added milk and butter as needed to thin it out or soak up all the flour. After the sauce was pretty thick I added a little more milk and then a some cheese. I didn't use a huge amount of garlic or cheese because I really wanted the flavors of the bacon and chicken to shine through. The cheese sauce was honestly more for texture than for flavor.
I don't know if people like these kinds of blog posts, or if you prefer my opinion pieces, or perhaps there's other things you would like to see me write about... or maybe you really don't care. Looking at the stats for my blog (and counting the comments and compliments people give me on a regular basis) there are enough people reading it that I feel like I should start asking for requests for things for me to write about!
If there is more interest in me sharing recipes I can start writing things down and making them more specific.
If there's a certain issue you'd like to see my opinion on, let me know. I really enjoy blogging, and writing in general!
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