My husband is a lover of all things Cajun but he happened to marry someone who is a self-professed pansy when it comes to spicy foods. I wanted to cook him something special for our anniversary and we had been playing around with the idea of a chicken and sausage pasta with a creamy Cajun sauce so I decided to raid our cabinets and surprise him with dinner last Thursday.
I used about a pound of chicken breast- cut up into bite-sized pieces and started cooking in a little butter and olive oil
Once the chicken was almost fully cooked, I added in roughly 1/2 pound of Andouille sausage {one link of the Johnsonville Andouille sausage pictured above}. I sliced the entire link and then cut the little sausage coins in half again. I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper and our homemade Cajun seasoning. I love the flavor of it and it really isn’t too spicy if used moderately, but by all means, use tons if you like the heat!
I let the chicken and sausage cook together for about 5-7 minutes, stirring pretty consistently so it didn’t stick to the bottom. Next I added 1/2 an onion {because I only had 1/2 on hand} and a whole red pepper. I was really random with the slicing of the red pepper but the goal was thin slices cut in half. I let this mixture cook for maybe 10 minutes? I lost track…the goal is for the peppers to be nice and soft and the nice thing about this dish is the flavor only gets better the longer the ingredients get to marry together. I added more seasoning here as well.
I cooked 1 lb. of multi-colored bow tie pasta in a pot separately and then added it to the pot. Next I used a jar of Alfredo sauce because I didn’t have any heavy cream to make my own. I heavily seasoned the sauce with freshly ground black pepper and you guessed it more Cajun seasoning. I added about a 1/4 cup of parmesean cheese and mixed all the ooey gooey deliciousness together. I set the burner to low and put a lid on the pot to keep everything warm until Dennis got home and as soon as he walked in, he was treated to a seriously delicious meal!
Try it out! I hope you enjoy it. Until next time…
-T-