One-Pot Cajun Chicken Pasta
This easy one-pot recipe is great for when you want something tasty to feed the family with minimal washing up. If you’ve got time to marinate the chicken in the garlic and spices beforehand then please do, but if you don’t have time, this dish is still bursting with flavour. There’s five minutes prep at the stove, and then this dish bakes in the oven for 25 minutes so you can get on with something important like having a G&T. Yes, it needs stirring halfway through but that’s hardly a chore is it when the reward is a steaming bowl of spicy pasta goodness?
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of going to Louisianna, but it’s somewhere that’s on the top of my foodie travel hit-list. Since a child I’ve been eating a version of this ‘Cajun chicken’ dish - there’s something so moreish about the warm spices mixed with the cooling cream. This is a great recipe for using up leftover vegetables so be adventurous with what you have in the fridge. I love to use peppers and cherry tomatoes, but you could easily add in veggies like red onions, carrots, sweetcorn. The most important thing is that you are able to submerge the pasta into the liquid, so it is able to absorb all the delicious flavour.
This serves two very hungry people and makes great leftovers. If you want to make it for four, or you’re making it for kids, you can easily double the recipe but I would think twice about doubling the cayenne pepper as it’s quite hot. Remember, if you’re a spice fiend as I am you can sprinkle some cayenne or chopped chilli on top of yours as the end. Be kind to the least spice-tolerant in your party.
Serves 2-3
Cooking time: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
200g chicken breast or thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces
150g pasta, I like penne or rigatoni so the sauce gets inside the tubes
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tbs Cajun seasoning (I use this one)
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional if you don’t like too much spice)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs rice wine or white wine (optional)
1 tbs tomato paste
220ml chicken stock
200g tinned chopped tomatoes
120g cherry tomatoes, halved
100g spinach, washed
100g Cream cheese
Juice of half a lemon
20g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Parmesan to serve.
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220/200fan.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a heavy-bottomed pan (with a lid) and when hot add the peppers and onion and fry for a couple of minutes before adding your chicken. Seal the chicken and add the spices, garlic and tomato paste and fry for a minute or so to release all the flavour. If you don’t like too much spice, omit the cayenne – it’s still great without it.
Deglaze the pan by adding the rice wine and using a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom to get any bits of flavour stuck to the bottom.
Add in the chicken stock, pasta and chopped tomatoes to the pan and give it all a really good stir ensuring the pasta is submerged into the liquid then pop on the lid and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes add the cherry tomatoes and give it all a really good stir, again you want to ensure the pasta is nice and snug in the pan before covering with the spinach, putting the lid back on and putting the pan back in the oven.
After 10 minutes your pasta should have absorbed most of the liquid so remove from the oven and stir through the lemon juice and cream cheese. Season to taste (if you used a stock cube you probably won’t need too much salt) and top with some chopped parsley and grated parmesan.
If you like this, then why not check out some of my other pasta recipes here.
