mid-week meal share: garlic chicken farfalle

This recipe is one of my favorites! The recipe itself is easy, but you have to use multiple pans and kitchen tools to get it done. Be forewarned! There is major kitchen clean-up after this little diddy - about garlic chicken farfalle; it's no chili dog but I think Jack and Diane would love to suck on this, too. Hahaha, I kill myself. If you didn't grasp that tidbit of John Cougar Mellencamp... I say good day!

Cost effective: $35, a touch more expensive than most things I share - still much cheaper than dining out (BUT this is for ALL ingredients, pre-cut/packaged green beans, and Texas toast)

Easy to concoct: you will need to be able to multi-task

Nutritious: carbs, carbs, carbs

Here's what you'll need for this one:

 per the recipe: 

16 oz Farfalle

1 pound chicken (not pictured)

1 pound bacon - crumbled

2-3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 tbsp pepper

1 cup heavy whipping cream

½ cup butter

½ cup shredded parmesan

Lawry's mesquite marinade with lime juice

per my adjustments (I made double the amount of sauce because.. WE ARE GLUTTONS):

16 oz mini Farfalle (or other small shape pasta)
1 pound chicken
1 pound bacon - crumbled
1½ tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp kick'n chicken seasoning
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup butter
1 cup shredded parmesan
1½ cans of cream of chicken soup
½ can of Swanson's chicken broth

The only thing I didn't double up on for the sauce was the bacon and pepper. I just really hate running the risk of a creamy pasta turning out dry. Tips from the blog I took the recipe from indicate that 1 tbsp of pepper is really peppery and to add it slowly and taste in between dashes because if you aren't a fan of pepper it could potentially ruin the dish for you.

1. Start up your crock-pot! I spray mine first with Pam for baking. Combine 1½ cans of cream of chicken soup and ½ can of chicken broth. Add chicken to crock-pot and cover with soup mixture.
2. Cook on high for 3 hours. If you do not have a crock-pot this recipe is still possible by baking the chicken in the oven. I only use the crock-pot to better shred the chicken.
3. Cook bacon, let cool, crumble, refrigerate.
ONCE YOU HAVE 30 MINUTES LEFT ON CROCK-POT TIMER:
4. Boil water for noodles.
5. Wait for water to boil and add noodles. No, I know you guys don't need instruction on when you put the noodles into the water, but I just wanted to make sure you waited until the next step! So, I'm hoping you're reading each step on it's own!
6. Combine in a saucepan: heavy whipping cream, butter, pepper, (kick'n chicken), shredded parmesan cheese, garlic, and bacon. If you plan on having sides this is when I would start cooking them up as well.

 7. Continuously stir/whisk, and once the butter has melted heat for 3-4 more minutes.
8. Trip over Piper because she keeps opening all the drawers. Please let me know in advance if you need to borrow her to complete the next steps.

9. If you don't have an extra hand in the kitchen this is when you're going to drain your pasta and remove the sauce from the heat so you can shred the chicken! (THANKS HUSBAND!)

Awesome chicken shredding tool

10. Once the chicken is shredded combine your sauce, noodles, and chicken!

11. ENJOY! And yes, there will probably one critic in the bunch.

Le RUDE.

And like I said, clean-up after this one will be a chore. Believe me, I would have used paper plates but we were all out. Truthfully though, it was nice to have out real plates and fixin's for a change.

This is one of those recipes that I personally tweak each time to try and make it better. I think I got it spot on this time around, though. It wasn't too spicy and there was the perfect amount of sauce. At what point do you feel it's appropriate to call a recipe your own? I would never want to claim something as my own, but just from this post alone you can find three different ways to make this dish and each one is different.



Still scrubbing that pot..
Leia