GRILLED CHICKEN & PASTA ALFREDO

    Look like a master chef on a budget and a whim.

    My mother n’ law just recently had a birthday. The wife and I proposed dinner at our place for the gift of food and family. When asked what she wanted, she could not say, or, would not say. I jokingly told her “OK, Spaghettio’s it is.” After some thought I decided on some chicken alfredo. It was on a week night after work so I didn’t have a lot of money but still wanted to do something nice, elequent, filling and tasteful. And I didn’t want a traditional chicken alfredo, so I decided to grill the chicken. With lack of time, six mouths to feed and being on a slim budget (who isn’t during the holidays?), I decided to make the chicken the star of the meal and went with pre-made pasta and sauce. So we’re talking a pretty easy meal here - but with the looks and taste of a gourmet night out.

     My foodie brother, Lonny gave me a gift a couple months back of Billy Bones BB rub and I thought let’s try some of the bad boy on chicken (it has worked nicely on beef so far)....well, it was great. I also marinated the chicken in some Italian dressing - a little known secret my brother turned me onto many years ago. This method not only tastes really good but it makes your chicken extremely juicy and soft to the chew.

     The key here, and always, for a family meal is timing, getting everything done at the same time. It is another reason I chose this particular meal - you can do all these separate things at once and pretty much have them done in the same amount of time. The end result is an eye appealing dish that everyone will love for a family on a budget.

     My decision to cut the breasts before plating them, made the dish look even better.

Ingredients: 

(serves 6)

2 - packs fettucini pasta noodles

2 - 15oz bottles of alfredo sauce  (I used Rinaldi for this meal)

1 - medium bottle of Italian dressing (I used Wish Bone for this meal)

6 - boneless chicken breasts

Rub of your choice (I used Billy Bones for this meal)

Marinate breasts in a ziplock bag for at leats 2 hours, with full contents of a medium Italian dressing bottle.

After done with marinating coat your chicken with your rub and set aside. Don’t fret on the marinade - this combination actually goes extremely well with the alfredo once they mix together. The taste is wonderful !

Light your bbq and prepare coals, make sure to grease your grill as chicken likes to stick.

You want your coals grey - medium to high heat for the chicken.

Prepare your noodles according to package, I also like to add a spoon of salt and a spoon of oil to the pot.

Put your chicken on the grill - 15 minutes (give or take depending on your coals) should be about right, I like to turn over about every 3 minutes, to keep an even grill and prevent any charring or sticking.

When chicken is done let it cool for a couple minutes, than slice it from head to toe (see picture) - this is a nice touch for the beauty of the plate and makes cutting the chicken and noodles much easier and the tast will flow together.

While chicken is cooling go ahead and heat up your sauce (low heat and make sure to pay attention, as the sauce likes to boil up and out of the pan).

Drain your noodles and plate.

Top each plate with equal portion of sauce.

Top with your cliced chicken.

Serve.

I added some dinner rolls and a salad to this particualr meal.

The presentation was beautiful, the meal was extremely filling and my mother n’ law loved me more than she did before she walked through the door.

Enjoy.