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Starchy Chicken Cesar Pasta


Chicken Ceasar salads are delicious.  Especially when served with pita chips on the side or stuffed inside a warm pita pocket with a side of butter noodles.  Not having access to delicious salad ingredients, a Chicken Cesar Pasta was made with a side of pan seared fresh zucchini.

Modifications Made:
Just one simple modification was made with no effects to the dish itself.  Regular spaghetti was used instead of angel hair.

Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You
In reading this recipe, the opening paragraph secured my decision to make this meal.  "So, the idea of Chicken Caesar Pasta is extremely enticing.  That being said, the balance of flavors, amount of sauce, and the consistency of the sauce is key in order to make it work without it being overpowering."

Tender well seasoned chicken, perfectly cooked pasta, capers providing lovely bits of salt, a very rich, well coating sauce made with the absence of butter or cream.

Consistency of the sauce is KEY.  Well, that is what she wrote but that is not what was achieved.  What was achieved was wall putty.   What went wrong?  Cooking pasta in the sauce results in a gritty starchy sauce.  Be it tomato sauce, milk/cream sauce, or a pesto sauce, when the noodles are cooked in the sauce the sauce will become thick due to the starch of the pasta itself.  This starch then overpowers the sauce making for a paste pasta.  Should have known from the start to cook the pasta on the side and created a rich, creamy sauce for the chicken to simmer in and then combined the sauce and the pasta before serving.  Should have known.

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