Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

John is now in training for his second marathon. Last fall, when he was preparing for a long Saturday morning run, we would often go to Olive Garden so that he could “carb-up” for his 15+ mile treks. Well, our budget isn’t what it once was in the “going-out-to-eat” category, so the challenge now was to create an alfredo sauce to match that of a restaurant. Anyone can cook pasta easily enough, at least I had that part down.

I looked at many recipes in cookbooks and online. They all called for one of two varieties: heavy cream and parmesean or cream cheese and butter. So last week, I made one batch of each. Guess what? They were both pretty good, but the ideal sauce, I thought, was when I mixed the leftovers together.

So this week, I tried a combination recipe of my own making:
4 oz cream cheese
½ stick butter
Melt together and add
1/4 to 1/3 c. parmesean cheese
Blend until smooth and add
1 c cream (either whole or half & half, depending on how rich you like it)
Stir until thick.

That’s it! Four ingredients for perfect alfredo sauce. Granted, they’re all quite fattening, which probably has a lot to do with it, but it really doesn’t take a lot of sauce to coat a bowl of fettuccine. If it’s too thick, add a little milk to the mixture until it is the desired consistency. I like a little pepper in mine as well.

Another nice addition was some grilled chicken. I invested in a small countertop grill that went on sale for half price last week and already feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it. Earlier in the day, I took my kitchen shears to two chicken breasts and cut them up into bite-sized pieces, poured about 1/3 c. zesty Italian dressing over them, and let them marinade for a few hours. After a few minutes in the grill, they were a delicious addition to make a perfect Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.

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