One Hundred Years Later I Share With You Blackened Chicken, Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo and Pasta Salad

So,
remember back about a hundred years ago when I shared my birthday meal with you that included a Twice Baked Sweet Potato recipe?

Well, the other dishes I made and served up that night were Blackened Chicken served with a
Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo and
a Pasta Salad that I threw together on my own.

I'll be sharing the recipes for that Blackened Chicken, the Alredo Sauce and that Pasta Salad today....here's a quick peak at the meal...

Remember, that Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo sauce isn't just a sauce for pasta, Ima tell ya, this makes a great dipping sauce too.
I used it as a dipping sauce so-to-speak for the Blackened Chicken Breast.

This alfredo recipe is so easy!

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And the Blackened Chicken recipe is soooo easy too!!

And real tasty, not too spicy even.
Works great on fish too, we used this recipe for tilapia and it was fantastic as well.

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Here are these easy Blackened Chicken and Alfredo sauce recipes embedded below.
The recipes are also listed at the end of the blog too.

These two recipes are so easy in fact,

I feel like I want to

shout it from the
rooftop.


I'm going up right now to the rooftop to shout the ease of these tasty dishes.

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Image: opentravelinfo.com

HEY!!!
Wait a minute!
Who are these people on.my. rooftop?!?!!!!

In.my.pools!!!

What the heck??? 
Hey you guys, GET OUT!
You're tresspassing!
That's illegal!

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Okay.
So that picture up above isn't necessarily my rooftop.

Mine's a bit more, uh, scaled down shall we say.

I'm a little embarrassed actually how crappy my rooftop is but I still want to shout how easy the recipes are.
So here's my real rooftop I'll be shouting the news from.

Image: unstitchedblog.com...a very pretty blog actually

WHAT?????


 
How do YOU KNOW that's not where Tim

and I dine every night?

Out on our roof.
top.
By the ocean.

Okay FINE! I'll come clean.

Unfortunately this picture really DOES seems to be most reminiscent of our roof. 
*Sigh*

Yup. I'm B-U-S-T-E-D.

Oh well.
Shall we move on?

Fixins for the Blackened Chicken

So these are the fixins for the Blackened Chicken...not a lot of ingredients huh?

And yet the chicken is moist and tasty when completed!

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I went ahead and fileted (is that what it's called?) or sliced the breasts lenghtwise in half so they would cook quicker and be a more even size all around.

Smokin' hot skillet. Doesn't look like it, but it is. Sizzzzle.

Now grease a baking sheet and heat up the skillet until smoking hot.

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The terrible lighting in this picture is strategy, that way you don't notice the dirty counter top.

Mix together the
paprika, salt, cayenne, cumin, thyme, white pepper and onion powder.

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Oil the chicken breasts with cooking spray on both sides, then coat evenly with spice mixture.
Place the chicken in the hot pan and cook for 1 minute. Turn and cook for another minute on the other side.

Place the breasts on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the oven until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
And wallah!!!

Still moving along quickly...
See how easy that was?

I made the Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo while I waited for the chicken...

Fixins for the Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo.

Fixins for the best sauce recipe you will ever eat in your whole entire life you will like it so much you will want to pay me but I am a kindly person and say just keep the money yourself and buy a nice new skillet or spatula or pretty dress or something.

T'aint much for ingredients here, is there?

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Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium heat.
Cook and stir the garlic and jalapeno pepper in the hot oil until fragrant.

Add the heavy cream, reduce the heat to low.
Stir in the Parmesan cheese and rosemary.
Continue cooking until the cheese is completely melted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Okay,
so the alfredo sauce is staying warm, let's start on that

Pasta Salad.
Uh, I did not use a recipe, I just kind of threw stuff in that I knew were the basics.

Looks like these are the fixins for the pasta salad.
I sort of just winged it and added ingredients used in a basic, tasty pasta salad.

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Before you prepare to make the salad, be sure to slice off a piece or two of that fresh mozzarella. And then eat it.

You don't have to use ALL of it in the salad.
After all, the cook's gotta keep their energy up.

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Cube up your mozzarella and halve the cherry or grape tomatoes and throw them in the bowl with the cooked whole wheat pasta.

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Toss in some chopped basil, pepper and salt, red wine vinegar, a tablespoon or so of capers and freshly minced garlic. Finally, drizzle with olive oil to taste.

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Now, doesn't it look yummy?
And because I used whole wheat pasta, so very healthy.

And the full meal once again just in case you haven't been bored to death already!

OH!!!

By the way,
the next day,
I made up a chicken  sandwich with the leftover Blackened Chicken and Alfredo sauce...

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And stuck it in the new panini griddler....

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Hello Loverly!

And now I will include the recipes down here so certain people (hey Ma!) can access them and write or print them off...

Blackened Chicken
From www.allrecipes.com submitted by Karena
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Karena says, “Take the bait and try this spicy charred chicken-a Cajun favorite.”

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat for 5 minutes until it is smoking hot
2.Mix together the paprika, salt, cayenne, cumin, thyme, white pepper, and onion powder. Oil the chicken breasts with cooking spray on both sides, then coat the chicken breasts evenly with the spice mixture.
3.Place the chicken in the hot pan, and cook for 1 minute. Turn, and cook 1 minute on other side. Place the breasts on the prepared baking sheet.
4.Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 5 minutes.

Jalapeno Rosemary Alfredo
From www.allrecipes.com submitted by: MsDo
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

MsDo says, "This Alfredo sauce recipe is given a bit of a kick with the addition of fresh jalapeno pepper, as well as the herbal deliciousness of rosemary."

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 pinch salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:     
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the garlic and jalapeno pepper in the hot oil until fragrant, about 5 minutes; add the heavy cream and bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Stir the Parmesan cheese and rosemary through the mixture; continue cooking until the cheese is completely melted, about 5 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper to serve.

And finally the pasta salad.

If you read all the way through this post,
you have much patience.
And I salute you!

The Pasta Salad That Angie Made That Tasted Good But She Can’t Remember All The Ingredients and Amounts
Courtesy of www.turnkeyqualitycars.com

Ingredients
8 oz. whole wheat fusili or spiral pasta, cooked to al dente (I sound so knowledgeable when I say “al dente”) al dente, al dente, al dente.
Package of cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved (not the package, the tomatoes)
Fresh Mozzarella, I think 8 oz., cubed
About 1 Tbsp. fresh garlic, minced
Maybe 1 Tbsp. capers
A spot of red wine vinegar (maybe a Tbsp. but “a spot” sounds so much hoitier)
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to taste
Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Cook the pasta.
2. Cut up the mozzarella and tomatoes. Eat a bit of each.
3. Mince the garlic cloves.
4. Scour the pantry for that jar of capers that you know is there and get disgusted by how a pantry can get so out-of-control so quickly after Christmas.
5. Look in the fridge for the capers and find them stuck way in back. Opened.
6. Throw everything together in a too small bowl and have lots of the spiral pasta spill out on the counter. Put all the stuff in a larger bowl and curse because now you’ve dirtied two bowls and it’s still not big enough.
7. Get out the third, more appropriate size bowl.
8. Toss the overflowing pasta, mozzarella, tomatoes, capers, and garlic from the too-small bowl in the appropriate size bowl.
9. Splash your red wine vinegar in there with the salt and pepper and olive oil.
10. Look at the floor and hope the dog will eat the pasta that spilled off the counter.
11. Wash hands, take off apron, grab a plate, take lots of boring pictures to bore readers even more so than normal.
12. Eat up!
Yum! This really is an excellent, basic, pasta salad guideline.
Enjoy!