... Chicken Dinner

It's the start of a new year and yes, I haven't posted in a long while in between almost having three jobs and paying off bills whilst still in school, and trying to balance a social life: life gets hectic. Although from time to time I take a deep breath, take a step back and just relax. Well, it's close to midterms week and I thought I'd find a recipe that was full in nutrients and protein that will fuel my body to study this weekend. I decided to go with the one I used at my friend's housewarming party: a Lemon Chicken Mushroom Alfredo Pasta. Last time we used rotini and this time we decided to go with penne.

We started off going to Vons to get some chicken, being on a very tight budget, I'm always looking for the right bargain. Since chicken breast wasn't on sale, I opted for a large packet of chicken thighs for $5.31 (about 8-9 pieces), button mushrooms, and lemon. We also went with Classico's Creamy Alfredo  for the sauce. David cut the bone out of the thighs (we used about a piece each) and while he did that I sliced up the mushrooms and lemon that will be tossed in a wok to be stir fried.

These are the seasonings that we used to rub through the chicken. After we gutted out the bones, we put in some ground black pepper on both sides with some pink salt, and a few shake of parsley. Then we added Lawry's seasoning salt. Before putting the pieces onto the grill, take the lemons and squeeze out the juice over the chicken, let it sit for about 2-3 minutes. Once the chicken is cooking, stir-fry the mushrooms until brown, it's okay to use a box for two as once they cook they will dramatically shrink in size. After, we added in the sauce and let it simmer before taking it off the stove. Don't forget to set a pot aside with boiling water for your pasta. Boil your pasta to al dente as you will be cooking it twice with the sauce so that it'll be soft by the time you serve it.

Grill the chicken until it's golden brown, make a little slice if you want to to double check if it's cooked thoroughly. Take it off the grill and plate it. Next, we took the pasta, strained it and mixed it with the alfredo sauce in the wok turned the fire to medium and stirred it. After plating we added a dash of parsley on top of the penne as garnish for that finished look. :) Hope everyone that drops by or sees this, tries this home- it's super simple to make and a lot of fun! Until next time~!

Ciao!
Kitty~