So, for the ingredients

• I use skinless boneless chicken thighs because thighs, I think, give a lot more flavor, though you could use skinless chicken breast if you wanted to
• Fettuccine pasta, 300g (you can use tagliatelle or any pasta of your choice)
• A tablespoon of butter.
• 200 mL of double cream, or heavy cream if you’re in America
• Half a teaspoon of nutmeg, grated if you want that lovely spicy warming flavor, 
• 100g of freshly grated Parmesan. 
• And I like to serve with chopped parsley, some lemon zest, and some olive oil. 
• And sometimes, if I want an extra bit of luxury, I serve it with some crispy bacon on top as well.

How to make it

So your first step is to heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan. Get it nice and hot, and you’re going to throw in your chicken thigh pieces. Cook for 10 minutes until it’s cooked all the way through, so there’s no pink in the middle of the chicken. You want it white all the way through.

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I sometimes add some mushrooms, and at this point, if you like mushrooms, you can throw some mushrooms in and get them nice and golden brown as well. And then I’m going to take this out of the pan and set aside just to cool slightly. If you’re using chicken breast, you’re going to tear them apart because you want it, like, shredded chicken.

I’m going to go through it.

The next step is to bring a large pan of water to a boil and add a big spoonful of salt. You want salty water. If your water is not salty, it doesn’t work as well, and you’re past the light stick.

So you want a rolling boil, so bubbles coming up and rolling and rolling and rolling before you put your pasta in. Once you’ve got a rolling boil in your water, put your pasta in, and that’s going to take about 12 minutes to get it to al dente.

While your pasta is cooking, you’re going to melt your butter in the frying pan you were using earlier. Strip off all those lovely bits of goodness, all the brown bits on the bottom, because that gives you lots of flavor. Now it’s simple: you can add your double cream, your nutmeg, and you can bring that to a simmer, which will thicken it.

Then you can add your chicken and mushrooms back into that, and it should be looking delicious and bubbly and creamy at this point.

Then once your pasta is cooked, take your pasta straight out of the water into your chicken cream mix, because the pasta water that’s on the pasta is gonna help to thicken this up. If it’s still looking a bit too thick, take some of your pasta water, a spoonful too, and add that in, and it’ll just loosen up. And then you’re ready to top it with the parmesan, chop parsley, some black pepper, and I like to add some lemon zest, lemon rind in there, and a little olive oil on top.

And you’ve got your lovely delicious cheesy goodness.

And if you want to have you got leftovers for the next day, a good tip is that you can heat them up, but when you heat them up, just add a splash of milk to it; otherwise, it is too thick. But you can heat it up in the microwave or back on the stove; just add a bit of milk, and that will help to loosen it. You could switch this up and do a different version.

You could do this with pork in that if you wanted some pork. You could use leftover chicken as well rather than cooking the chicken from fresh. And also, if you want a lighter version, if you swap out the double cream for half-fat cream, you’ll still get a creamy texture but with fewer calories and fresher.

Enjoy.

Fiona MacLean

Chicken Alfredo Pasta

A creamy chicken and pasta dish made with chicken thighs, double cream, nutmeg, and parmesan, topped with parsley and lemon zest.

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Servings: 3 servings

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs or skinless chicken breasts
• 300 g pasta fettuccine, tagliatelle, or pasta of choice (transcript says ‘feta cheese’ and ‘Tag the Telly’)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 200 mL double cream or heavy cream
• 0.5 whole nutmeg grated
• 100 g parmesan freshly grated (transcript says ‘decorated’)
• parsley chopped
• lemon zest transcript says ‘lemon grind’
• 1 tablespoon olive oil for cooking
• olive oil for garnish
• crispy bacon optional, for serving
• mushrooms optional
• water for boiling pasta
• 1 big spoonful salt
• black pepper
• splash milk for reheating leftovers

Method

 

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan until hot. Add chicken thighs and cook for 10 minutes until cooked through with no pink in the middle. Optionally, add mushrooms and cook until golden brown.
2. Remove the chicken and mushrooms from the pan and set aside to cool slightly. If using chicken breasts, shred them.
3. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil and add a big spoonful of salt. Add the pasta and cook for about 12 minutes until al dente.
4. While the pasta cooks, melt butter in the frying pan used for the chicken, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom.
5. Add double cream and grated nutmeg. Bring to a simmer to thicken.
6. Return the chicken and mushrooms to the sauce until bubbly and creamy.
7. Transfer the cooked pasta directly from the water into the chicken cream mixture. Add a spoonful or two of pasta water if the sauce is too thick.
8. Top with parmesan, chopped parsley, black pepper, lemon zest, and a drizzle of olive oil.
9. To reheat leftovers, add a splash of milk before microwaving or heating on the stove to loosen the sauce.

Notes

For a lighter version, swap the double cream for half-fat crème fraîche. Leftover chicken or pork can be used instead of cooking fresh chicken. Top with crispy bacon for extra luxury.

Total time: 25 minutes.