Monday, August 3, 2009

Easy Chicken Cacciatore

a.k.a. "Kitchen Catch-A-Story" (so quick and easy, you can sit down and read a story in the time you'll save) . . . I "invented" this recipe in a moment of dinner desperation, and amazingly my family thought it tasted great. Everyone I've shared it with has had a similar reaction, which gives me the courage to share it as my very first blog post EVER. Hopefully it will help someone dear to me in a moment of dinner desperation. You can adjust the number of servings by how much chicken you use. BTW, if you need to, you can skip the browning of the chicken and throw it in the crock pot with the salsa and spaghetti sauce, cook it all day and fix the pasta when you get home. Let me know what you think.
Serves 6 with left-overs. I combine the remaining pasta and chicken and refrigerate. Keeps well for 3 days.
Ingredients:
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • salt/pepper
  • 6-7 chicken tenders
  • 1 jar mild salsa (16 oz.)
  • 1 jar sphaghetti sauce (24 oz.) (I like Classico or Barilla "Roasted Garlic")
  • fresh grated parmesan cheese
  • pasta (approx 12 oz.) (I use Mrs. Leeper's Organic Rice-Vegetable Twists to keep it gluten free)

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in large skillet over med. high heat. Brown chicken 2-3min. each side, salt and pepper lightly.
  2. Pour salsa and spaghetti sauce over chicken, cover and cook 25-30 min. over med. heat until chicken is cooked enough to break into small chunks or shreds. Stir chicken chunks around in sauce, reduce heat to low and continue to simmer another 10-15 min. while cooking pasta.
  3. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain. Toss with a little butter and olive oil to prevent sticking.

Serve chicken mixture over pasta, topped with parmesan cheese. Add a garden salad, maybe some garlic bread, and YUM!

P.S. BIG THANKS and HUGS to Mandy (our digital whiz kid) for getting our Dinner Belles blog launched. She has already posted some awesome recipes. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I am so excited to share recipes and ideas for nourishing our families, stretching our budgets, and changing meal planning from a JOB to a JOY. Love to all.

4 comments:

emmers said...

Mom you crack me up- I love you.

mandy & ben said...

I am making this tonight! Looking forward to it!

mandy & ben said...

Julie, made this for dinner last night. We had our friends Tyler and Stacy over, it was a hit! Everyone loved it! I served it over spaghetti noodles because that's what I had in my cupboard. It was great!

emmers said...

Mom, I made this for dinner-turned out fabulous and was so painless. Naomi loved it too! I served it over angel hair. Thanks!!!