April 11, 2001
Cecil’s Chicken Pasta in Chipotle Cream Sauce
Cecil’s Chicken Pasta in Chipotle Cream Sauce
I recreated this one myself from a local restaurant’s dish. It’s different enough though to pretend I made this up on my own. This will serve two. The original recipe grills the chicken breast and slices it across the grain and served on the top of the pasta bowl. I prefer not grilling during the winter so I pan fry the chicken and add it to the sauce. Naturally you can add more or less of the chicken and veggies, depending on whats available and what you like, but try the recipe first before you start fixing it. The only tricky part is timing the pasta and the sauce so the chicken won’t be too badly overcooked. If the pasta is done early, drain and cover, it will keep warm long enough to finish the sauce.
I suggest not spending a bunch of money the first time you make this. Generic brands if you can. Fully enjoyable as written. If you’re a gourmet you can punch up the next batch.
| Ingredients | Procedure |
| 4 or 5 Chipotle Chile peppers. | If using dried peppers, reconstitute for at least 30 minutes in boiling hot water. If using canned Chiptoles, rinse the adobo sauce off them. Remove the tough stem end, seeds and veins of the chiles. Roughly chop |
| 1 clove garlic, chopped into 3rds | Add garlic to processor |
| 1 cup of Half and Half, more or less | Add a little bit of the half and half (or milk) and blend. Add cream/milk as needed to to make a thick but pourable paste. Blend very well or you’ll have to sieve. Note. If you don’t have one of the very small processors, you will have |
| 1 half of a whole chicken breast (roughly 1/2 lb) | Cut into bite size pieces, but not teeny-tiny or diced. Chunks. |
| 1/3 of a 16oz box of dried Rotini or Ziti pasta | Put pasta water on the stove to start boiling. Meanwhile cut up the vegetables |
| 1/2 to 1 Bell Pepper | The original had red, green and yellow bell peppers but the prices of red and yellow are often outrageous. No problem, just use what your willing to pay for or have in the fridge. Cut peppers to be 1 1/2 in long and 1/4 across. |
| 1/2 Medium to Large onion. | Cut into pieces the size of the peppers. |
| 1/2 lb of fresh button mushrooms, i.e. 4 to 6 depending on size and tastes |
Cut into fairly large chunks (4 for a very small button) |
| 3/4 of a Small can (2.25oz) of cheap sliced black olives | Drain olives (but don’t rinse) |
| Chopped tomatos and green onions | For optional garnish. Unless I had them already I wouldn’t bother. |
| In a little oil, on medium to medium high heat, brown chicken chunks but don’t fully cook through. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside. |
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| 1 Tbl Butter | Add buttter and mushrooms to skillet and cook until nearly firm – 5 minutes? Pasta water should be boiling by now, so add pasta to it. |
| Add bell pepper and onion to skillet, turn heat down to Med-Low, after onion and peppers have softened, add the Chipotle paste and the remainder of the half and half. Add the olives. Reduce liquid by a 1/3rd on a medium simmer. Add a bit of black pepper When pasta is done, drain the pasta and let set for a few minutes. |
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| Serving | |
| Grated Parmesean Cheese | In an individual pasta bowl, fill half way with the pasta, add a fair size scoop or two of the skillet goop and grate parmesean over the top, mix and add more grated cheese until the thickness is what you like. Top with your garnishes of choice, but I’d avoid parsely or cilantro |
Notes:
Don’t put afraid of the 4 or 5 chipotles because the cream and the butter and the cheese will cut the heat down substantionally. But be sure to deseed and devein the chiles and don’t touch your eyes or private parts without a thorough washing of the hands. Twice.
The first time you make it, you’ll overcook the chicken and/or not cook the sauce down enough while waiting for the pasta or you won’t use enough chipotles. Even so it will still be good enough for you enjoy and dream about the next time.
The restuarants version has a thinner but hotter sauce. I suspect they use 2 canned chipotles and don’t rinse the canning adobo sauce off very hard nor do they deseed/devein since you can remove most of the seed and vein if you only use the bottom two thirds of the pepper. I’m guessing they don’t reduce the sauce as much or just use milk. I like my version better, and I think you will too.
Don’t forget the sliced olives. You can fool with veggies all you want (adding zuchhini or squash for example), but the olives finish the dish off. Would you believe I’m not a big fan of black olives? In this case they make a huge difference and they won’t annoy you any more than they would on a pizza.
Substitutions and Additions:
I suspect (but don’t know) that you could use shrimp instead of chicken, but after browning you would add them to the sauce much closer to the end. If someone tries that, let me know.
I suspect you could do without the chicken (or substitute) entirely but I like protein with my dinner. It would be a good side dish or pasta course, but too much trouble for me to do as a just side dish. If someone tries that let me know.
I suspect that a little tomato sauce or paste wouldn’t hurt this and if I didn’t have a handheld food processor and had to sieve the chile pulp, I’m pretty sure that using a quarter cup of tomato sauce (slowly) would help get the chili paste thru the sieve properly. Let me know how that works out.
Helpful hints
If you buy a can of chipotoles to make this you’ll have some left over. Rinse them, pat dry and wrap each one in a bit of plastic wrap. Put the indivdually wrapped peppers in a freezer bag and pop into the freezer for months (or maybe years). Then you can take out just one, defrost it, seed and devein it and chop into really tiny bits and add as a garnish to chicken soup. Trust me