- 2 chicken breasts
- Cajun seasoning
- your favorite BBQ sauce(I like Bull's Eye original)
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 slice bacon
- 2 T butter
- 3 T flour
- 2 1/2 cup milk(I use 1%)
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese + some to sprinkle on top
- juice from one can of tomatoes and 1/2 of the tomatoes(I used tomatoes with gr. chili)
- handful of fresh chopped spinach
- box of Gemelli pasta(or whatever is your favorite)
Directions: Prepare pasta according to package directions. Pour approx. 2 T of olive oil into a large skillet. Add peeled smashed garlic. Cook over med. low heat until tender. Remove and smash or chop, then return to pan. When garlic is almost finished cooking add 1 slice of bacon to cook. While garlic and bacon are cooking, coat chicken breast with Cajun seasoning. Cook chicken on grill when almost finished cooking give chicken a light coat of your favorite BBQ sauce. When garlic and bacon are finished cooking add juice from the can of tomatoes. Let the juice cook and reduce. Add butter and flour to the skillet(w/garlic, bacon and tomato reduction) to make a roux. Add milk and stir continuously until it starts to thicken up, if it gets too thick add a little more milk. Slice the chicken and add the chicken and parmesan cheese to the sauce. When the cheese is melted add the tomatoes. Add the spinach and pasta, cook just until spinach starts to wilt. Serve with additional parmesan cheese on top.
For the Cajun season I mix up the following: 1/4 c salt, 3 T garlic powder, 3 T fresh ground black pepper, 1/4 t cayenne pepper, 1 T paprika. I put this in a jar and use it for all kinds of things.
I made this pasta tonight and it was absolutely delicious! I did modify it to accommodate what I had on hand (no bacon, no BBQ sauce, and I used Jarlsberg cheese instead of Parmesan), but it was fantastic! I just used extra Cajun seasoning, I can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow :-)
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