Dinner's Ready When the Smoke Alarm Goes Off

Abby and I are in Morton, IL visiting Jonathan, her fiance'. On Saturday night we thought it would be fun to do a little cooking so we ventured out to Wal-Mart to purchase all the necessary ingredients for Blackened Chicken Pasta.

This is a recipe his mother put together for him modeled after a dish they had once at Steak and Ale. He assured us we would love this and he was right. This is really, really good! The Blackened seasoning is very spicy and he used a LOT of it. Cooking over a high flame, it was blackening all right, and also smoking up the whole apartment. But it was worth it. Try this one out!

Heat butter in the skillet and fry the seasoned chicken.

Sprinkle on a LOT of this.


You pretty much want to cover the chicken in this stuff.


Get the noodles started while the chicken is cooking.


Working on the sauce.


Cover the surface of the sauce with more seasoning...


Oh, that's starting to smell really good!


Garlic bread...most definitely.


Pop the bread under the broiler. (That chicken is starting
to really smoke now! Time to open the doors and windows!)

You look pretty comfortable in here, Abby.
Better get used to it!

Putting on the finishing touches. Your mama would be proud!

Welcome to J&A's Bistro. Lovin' that black china, Jonathan!
Very impressive!


Mrs. St. Clair's Blackened Chicken Pasta

• 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 pint half and half (or just use three cups milk)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 stick butter
• salt
• pepper
• Blackened or Cajun seasoning
• garlic powder
• 1 lb fettucine or linguini, cooked and drained

Sauce: Put milks, cornstarch, and 1/2 stick butter in saucepan. Add salt, pepper, garlic, and blackened spices to taste. (We decided it was at least 2 tsp of blackened seasoning in the sauce.)  Cook on medium heat until thickened.

Wash chicken and coat with blackened seasoning. Fry in butter in HOT pan until cooked through. Slice into thin strips. Serve pasta topped with chicken, pour, sauce on top. Serves 6 or 7.