Cooking Things: Spicy Chicken Capellini

It was time for dinner, and I had a pound’s worth of slightly-freezer-burned chicken breasts and a pound’s worth of pasta, and some peppery breading left over from a bunch of buffalo wings last week.  From this I needed to make a main dish.  So I did that.

Spicy Chicken-Strip Capellini

Recipe By     : Sam Waring
Serving Size  : 4     Preparation Time 0:30
Categories : Chicken, Pasta

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
————————  ————————      ——————————————————————————————
  1              pound  Chicken breast, boneless, cut into strips
  2                     Beaten eggs, reserve remainder
                        Spiced flour
  1              pound  Angel hair pasta
                        Peanut oil, for frying
                        Grated Parmesan cheese

                        —————SPICED FLOUR—————
  1                cup  Flour
  1           teaspoon  Kosher salt
  1           teaspoon  Smoked paprika
  1           teaspoon  Cayenne pepper

                        —————SAUCE—————
  1                cup  Evaporated milk
  1                cup  Water
  3                     Garlic cloves, pressed
     1/2      teaspoon  White pepper
  1           teaspoon  Thyme
  1           teaspoon  Nutmeg
     1/2      teaspoon  Turmeric
     1/4           cup  Flour
  2             ounces  Pistachio nuts, minced

Cut the chicken into strips of about 1 cm by 3 cm and lay into the beaten egg. Set aside.

Mix together the spiced flour ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

Toss the marinated chicken strips in the spiced flour and fry in hot peanut oil in a medium to large skillet until done. Set aside to keep warm.

Mix the evaporated milk and water and pour into a medium saucepan over a medium-low flame. Simmer to reduce. While the milk is simmering, add the pressed garlic, white pepper, thyme, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Add the flour to the remaining egg from the chicken marinade and whisk together well. Increase the heat slightly under the sauce, and add the flour-egg mixture while whisking VERY briskly to prevent clumping. The sauce at this point should be thick, smooth or nearly so, and a pale golden colour. Stir in the chopped pistachios.

While the sauce is cooking, cook the capellini in boiling salted water, and drain as usual.

When the sauce is done, toss it with the drained capellini in a large bowl. Plate it in 2-ounce portions, top with several strips of chicken. Garnish with grated Parmesan.

— – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – —

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 596 Calories; 14g Fat (22.1% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 83g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 122mg Cholesterol; 427mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat.

This turned out to be a really great combination of spicy Tex-Mex and classic Italian-American.  It was warm enough to make me sweat while I was eating it, but not so warm that A and L refused it outright.  A sounded downright pleased by it, saying he didn’t recognize the breading as the same as on the hot wings I’d served up last week.

A soft and but signal get a they swimming more can but get its combination. Fnord.