Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
20 Minutes
6 Servings
Introduction
A quick, tasty and filling work lunch meal ready in 20mins and can be made in one pot. This is such a quick to whip up meal and will save you some pennies from buying ready-made meals from the shops. This stores perfectly in the fridge for up to 5 days. Another meal to make from scratch and you can make it as spicy as you want and know exactly what’s in your food. Simply change up the spices or vegetables to make it fresh every time and you can use cheese if you want. My inspiration from Kitchn includes parmesan cheese.
Steps
Marinate the cubed chicken
Cook the pasta in a pan till al dente and pour into a colander saving some pasta water
Heat the same pan on medium heat and fry till browned
Chop the shallots, halve the cherry tomatoes and chop parsley
Once the meat is ready add the butter, tahini paste and the rest of the Cajun spice
Add the pasta, cherry tomatoes to the sauce and mix till combined
Its ready once the sauce sticks to the pasta
Recipe adapted from: https://www.thekitchn.com/cajun-chicken-pasta-22948848
Blog
How to make
Now this recipe is for you if you hate the mess cooking can bring by using multiple pots and pans. Hopefully this one pan quick to prepare lunch will be added to your personal cookbook!
First, dice chicken into bitesize chunks and season your chicken with the 1 1/2 tablespoons of Cajun spice, black pepper and sea salt to taste. Let it sit to marinate whilst you do the next step, boil the pasta for about 8 mins in salt water. You want the pasta to still be al dente (hard) as it will finish cooking in the sauce. For pasta type, I am not precious about this, any you have in your kitchen will work preferably any that the sauce can wrap around.
Once the pasta is cooked to the desired texture (take about 3 mins off how long the pasta's normal cooking time), pour the pasta in a colander /strainer remembering to save half a cup of pasta water.
Next, clean the same pan with a paper towel and put back on the heat with some oil. On medium heat, fry your chicken, about 2 mins on both side till brown. Any oil of choice will do, I use vegetable, sunflower or olive oil interchangeably. To the cooked chicken, add tahini paste and butter allow to simmer till it forms a sauce for about 2 mins. . This will be quite thin in consistency, if you want to thicken it add one more tablespoon of butter. Add the chopped tomatoes, parsley, shallots and any other optional vegetables.
The pasta water helps the sauce to stick to the pasta. Loosen up the sauce with a bit of pasta water at a time. Stir in black pepper, more Cajun spice if desired, add pasta and mix to combine. Cover with the lid and allow to cook on low heat for 2 mins. If you used unsalted butter check if more salt needs to be added to bring the rest of the flavours to life!
If cooking ahead for lunch, allow to cool down and then serve into storage containers. Otherwise serve on a plate with a side of salad and garlic bread immediately.
I discovered Cajun spice probably a few years ago now and love the smoky flavour it brings to meals.
Comment below and let me know how you found this recipe.
Enjoy!
#Lunch #mealprep #homecook #homecookedmeals #quickmeals #onepotmeal #easymeals
- Pasta 500g
Shallots 2
Cherry tomatoes 250g
Handful of parsley
Tahini paste (hulled sesame seeds) 3 tbps.
Freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt to taste
Cajun spice 1 1/2 tbps. + 1 tbps. for sauce
Skinless boneless chicken thighs 450g
Olive oil 2 tbps