Quick Chicken & Pasta

Posted by johngl

I just needed a fix.  Didn’t matter much what it was. The searing heat of my outdated stovetop, the sizzle of hot fat, the steamy, boiling goodness of reducing stock; its almost like…like…well…cooking.

I checked the fridge.

I found what looked like chicken stock.  But how could I be sure?

If you haven’t learned the painters’ tape labeling trick, shame on you.

I also found some detritus of two day old rotisserie chicken.

I was getting closer. I could feel a bit of a facial flush coming on, I flung open the doors to our overstuffed pantry.

A bunch of stuff fell out.  I should have known better.

Butt weight! What’s that over there next to the quinoa and in front of the white beans to the left of the ginger snaps?

Organic pasta!

This was all coming together.  It was… my destiny!

I tossed the homemade gelatinous goo (derived from genuine chicken parts) into my favorite copper pan (a gift from my most glorious spousal unit).

I measured out two helpings, or what I thought was two helpings, of pasta onto a plate and put on a pot of water to boil.

I heated up a pan, added some olive oil, and tossed in the detritus of rotisserie chicken, getting a nice sear on the chicken, just to satisfy that sizzle jones. I turned down the heat to keep the chicken just warm.

As the stock reduced, I added some basil, oregano, and fresh garlic and allowed that to steep whilst the pasta was cooking.

The pasta took about 12 minutes, at which time I used about a half cup of pasta water to deglaze the pan of chicken parts.

I removed the basil, oregano, and garlic from the now reduced and steeped stock, added salt, pepper, and pequin powder to taste.  I also added a sploot of heavy cream.  A sploot is a unit of measurement somewhere between a couple of tablespoons and a quarter cup.

I cut up about a half-stick of cold butter into some pats and set them aside.

I then combined the now cooked pasta with the chicken parts.

I grated some Parmigiano-Reggiano over the chicken and pasta, about a quarter cup’s worth.

Mounting the sauce with butter (a process by which a very hot sauce is thickened by adding cold pats of butter while off the heat), I dumped the whole shebang over the pasta and chicken, coating the pasta nicely.

Finishing off with some cracked black pepper, this was ready to eat (once I’d found a wine).

Actually, the most glorious one found the wine: a 2007 Russian River Chardonnay (Lot 130) by Cameron Hughes.

The rich and buttery finish on the chard worked wonderfully with the rich, buttery sauce due to some nice acidity that came along for the ride. The tropical and citrus fruit on the nose picks up some lemony goodness on the palate. There is a flavor in the finish of this wine that I really look for on Chardonnay: butterscotch. For a mere $10, this is a really good wine. I hope I have more of this in my cellar.

My cooking craving temporarily satisfied, I spent the rest of the evening editing vacation photos. It is a great way to relive those wondrous days loaded to the brim with relaxation.