Cajun Chicken Pasta

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Cajun Seasoning Ingredients: (I encourage you to double or triple this recipe for future use because it's such an amazing blend of flavorful spices!)

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon black pepper

Chicken Ingredients:

5-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (flattened or cut into 1/2 inch filets)

1 cup oil

2 tablespoon Cajun seasoning

2 tablespoon Italian seasoning 

2 tablespoon lemon pepper

Pasta Ingredients:

1 pound penne pasta

2 tablespoon oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic (or as little or as much as you like)

4 small tomatoes, diced

5 button mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning

1 cup white wine

1 cup vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream or milk

Salt, to taste

Lemon Pepper, to taste

Parsley, fresh or dried

Directions:

1. Marinate chicken in fridge for at least 30 minutes (more if possible for the flavors to soak in; I marinated mines overnight).

2. Cook pasta according to package.

3. Lightly oil a frying pan and cook for about 6 minutes on each side. Cover with lid. When you slice down the middle of the chicken, it should not be pink & still juicy. 

4. Cool chicken filets on a slicing board. When cooled, cut into cubes for later. 

5. At the same time, boil a bouillon cube in 1 cup of water.

6. In the same frying pan that you cooked your chicken, add oil and brown onion and garlic.

7. Add chopped tomatoes and cook on high heat until most of the tomato juice has reduced.

8. Add sliced mushrooms and spices. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from pan.

9. In the same pan, add wine and vegetable stock. Cook for 4-5 minutes at medium heat, scraping the bottom of pan to deglaze the bottom of the pan.

10. Add in your heavy cream or milk into the pan. Cook for a few minutes at medium-low heat until the sauce starts to thicken. Re-add your tomato-based sauce into your cream sauce. Add more salt, pepper, and/or Cajun seasoning to taste. Add chopped chicken. Add parsley. Mix well. 

11. Add sauce to pasta and mix well. 

Dayummmm....doesn't that look hella good? ;)

Pasta for dayzzzz~~~ <3 

Okay, maybe just one day... xD

This dish is probably one of the most time-consuming dishes I've made thus far, but it was definitely worth it! It probably took me about 1 to 1.5 hours of cooking time. I think I'll be able to cook this dish faster in the future now that I know all the steps!

I'm proud of how this dish turned out & I hope you all have as much fun as I did cooking this dish! 

Enjoy! :)