what's cooking wednesday - fiesta chicken pasta

Well it's that time of the year again. Time for a shift in cooking. No more relying on the grill outside. Time to introduce more pasta and soup (oh glorious soup) to the menu. I do love pasta, but it can get a little boring. Am I right folks? Or is that just me? I'm not all that creative when it comes to pasta to be honest with you. I'm really just a brown some meat and open a jar of sauce kind of girl. It's usually a really good sauce, though, do I get bonus points for that? This recipe got me out of my pasta cooking rut.



Fiesta Chicken Pasta

3 cups rotini pasta, uncooked
1 tbsp oil
1 ilb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 cups chopped red peppers
1/4 cup zesty Italian dressing
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Kraft Mozza-Cheddar cheese

Cook pasta as directed on the package.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add chicken. Cook and stir 6 minutes. Add peppers, dressing and chili powder; cook 3 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, stirring frequently. Stir in salsa and sour cream.

Toss pasta with chicken mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Recipe Notes: Well this recipe was a slam dunk. At least for the adults it was. I loved that this was a departure from the usual tomato based sauces. Mike's not a huge pasta fan to begin with and he only really likes a red meat sauce. The only change I made, unintentionally, was extra "sauce". You see, I opened a brand new bottle of Pace salsa for this recipe and stupidly poured it into the measuring cup over the pan. So of course the bottle did that funny little "glug" thing that brand new full bottles do when they are desperate for air and my measuring cup runneth over. So I just eyeballed a somewhat equal amount of sour cream into the pan and mixed it up. To be honest I did like it a little more on the saucy side, so I would certainly make that mistake again. Oh and I threw the red pepper in and sauted it with the chicken.

Mike: 4/5
Shan: 4.5/5
Abby: I don't like this chicken, can I have another bread?
Maya: Eats half a piece of cheese, mushes the rest of the rest of the food into the table with her fork.

What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret. Much to Kaffy's chagrin, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.

Thanks and Enjoy.