Pasta, Oil, and Chicken Oh My!

I don't know if any of you are like me, but some nights I get home around 8 or 9pm and haven't yet eaten dinner.  Now, I know the cardinal rule: you aren't supposed to eat after sundown,  but let's get real.  Chances are, if it's 9pm and I haven't eaten, I'm starving, cranky, and most importantly going to eat no matter what the cardinal rule says.  Maybe one day I will get myself on a schedule and eat dinner at a regular time every night...and maybe pigs will fly.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, as I have stated a billion times in this blog, GDF cooking is anything but quick, so what do you do when you're jonesing for food but don't want to stay up to cook?  The number 1 rule applies here: focus on what you CAN eat rather than what you CAN'T eat.  Below is a recipe I came up with for a quick meal that is yummy and will send you to bed with enough protein to fuel your early morning rise the next day.  Enjoy!

Pasta, Oil, and Chicken Oh My!

Spaghetti

I love Mrs. Leeper's corn spaghetti because it has the closest texture to actual spaghetti out of all of the options I've tried, but there is a catch.  This pasta does not cook like normal pasta.  I repeat, it does not cook like gluten-filled pastas.  You are going to want to start cooking this before you get to your sauce because it takes longer than usual to cook thoroughly. 

 Put on a pot of boiling water and add about a TBSP of olive oil (don't skip this step) to the pot. Once the pot is boiling, take out the amount of spaghetti you would normally add to the pot.  Then add about a 1/4 inch in diameter more.  (This pasta is thick but I've found you need more noodles to hold any sort of sauce.)  Break the pasta in half before dumping into your pot.

The murkiness of the water is a sign
that you're doing it right!

This will cook for a good 20 minutes or so and beware, the water will get murky, so you must check the noodles constantly.  You can't let them just sit in the pot because they clump together really easily and will take longer to cook that way (this is where the oil coms in handy).  I test several pieces of pasta before taking it out because for whatever reason, this pasta seems to cook unevenly.  Once it's finished, drain and set out.  You can drizzle oil on it or you can place it back in the pan with a little bit of water, but don't let it sit too long or the noodles will get soggy.

Sauce
3 garlic cloves
Olive Oil (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 medium sized zuchinni
1/2 small yellow onion
1 can of chicken, or 1 1/2 boiled chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and Pepper to taste

I used a 10" cast iron skillet to make this sauce and most of these directions will be to taste, apologies in advance.  Start out with covering the bottom of the pan with oil until you're about an 1/8 " deep.  In a cast iron pan, I let that simmer just a little, until the pan gets nice and hot and the oil becomes ready to soak up all of the flavor I'm about to pour in it. 

**Cooking Tip: Never cook olive oil on anything higher than medium heat as it goes rancid at high temperatures, plus the mess of popping oil is never fun to clean!

Pampered Chef's Garlic Press

Now, once the oil is warm, you can add your minced garlic.  Not to post a plug for Pampered Chef, but fresh garlic is the way to go.  It's so healthy for you and a great way to flavor your food naturally.  Buying minced garlic is just not the same.  Pampered Chef has a garlic press that is out of this world.  I use it literally everyday.  So, press the garlic into the oil and spread around.  Let the garlic get soaked in the oil.  While it's soaking, chop up the onion and the zuchinni into bite sizes and add to the skillet, making sure the contents are continually covered in oil.  If you have to add more oil, now is the time to do it.  Let the flavors marinate.  Once the onion has sort of carmelized, you can add the chicken, once again, making sure the oil is getting tossed over the whole mixture. 

**Cleaning Tip: If you're using a cast iron pan, at this point, you can take it off the heat and let the residual heat from the cast iron pan continue to heat the mixture.  This way the pan is cooling while you are waiting for the pasta, which makes clean up easier!

Once the chicken is finished soaking up the flavor (you can usually tell because it will start to brown around the edges), add the S&P you're ready to go!  Dress the spaghetti with the sauce and welcome to Yum-Town! 

The clean up on this is really simple, because you're only using a skillet and pot, so you can either do it right away or wait until you've finished eating.