Monday, December 19, 2011

Chicken Alfredo

I box fettuccine
About a pound of boneless chicken breasts
One third a bottle of white wine
Half cup of Soy sauce
I jar Alfredo sauce
1 cup of Chicken or vegetable broth

Two white or yellow onions
One clump of broccoli (3 shoots) or asparagus (or other vegetable)
One cactus leaf (to cut cholesterol)
One clove of elephant garlic

Freeze the chicken at least for an hour so it can be cut cleanly. Longer may be too hard and you'd have to thaw it.

Cut the chicken into long strips and cut the strips again and again so you have 1/4 inch or so wide strips.

Place the chicken in a bowl. Add half a cup of wine, three tablespoons of soy sauce, half a cup of broth. Shake it or mix so all the chicken gets covered. Let sit to marinate. If for over 30 minutes go back and mix it up with the sauce occasionally.  You can also marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Boil 2 quarts of water. Add fettuccine and boil on medium-low for about 15 minutes until soft. Then turn off and drain. Put the fettuccine back in the pot and add the Alfredo sauce. Heat on low and stir it in. You can add wine or broth to thin the consistency. Also a tablespoon or two of soy is nice. You can do this simultaneously with the following.

Dice the onions. Add diced or crushed garlic with the onions. Heat a large fry pan. Add oil to the pan, Then added the onions and garlic and stir fry a bit, then turn down to medium and cover.

Dice the broccoli or vegetables and add them to the onions and garlic. If using soft vegetables like bok choy, let the onions cook a while first. Harder ones like broccoli or carrots should go right in. But they should be cut into pretty small pieces (or shredded or into strings) to cook faster.

Stir fry the vegetables for about 10 minutes with the onions. Add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of broth, the same amout of of wine and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix it in. Put on medium low and let cook about 15 minutes until soft, occasionally stirring. Also leave the lid on between stirring it up to help steam the vegetables.

Scrape all the needles off the cactus leaf if it has them (you can also buy leaves without needles). Rinse the leaf and run your hand over it to make sure there are no needles. Be careful. The needles hurt and are dangerous if ingested. Also rinse off your cutting board to make sure all needles are gone. Dice the leaf and put in a blender. Add half a cup of wine and broth and a tablespoon of soy sauce. Blend to liquid. Add this to the vegetables and stir in during the last 5 minutes of the above.

If you don't use the cactus leaf you can use 2 tablespoons of corn starch instead to make a thick sauce with the wine, soy, and broth.

You can now add the vegetables to the the fettuccine or keep them separate. This is now a vegetarian dish if you used vegetable broth.

With the vegetables out of the pan you can use the same pan to cook the chicken. The residue will flavor the chicken. Add oil to the pan and dump in the chicken with its marinade. Stir fry just until the chicken is not raw (or slightly raw is OK because it continues to cook).

Add the chicken to the fettuccine and stir it in or keep it separate if you have vegetarian guests. Drink the remaining wine (or use it to seduce your guest) and serve.

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