Alpharetta Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

For years, Chris and I have had a super-easy, go-to recipe for a quick and delicious meal. We've always called it "Chicken Alfredo with Sun Dried and Tortellini."

We started this recipe when we both lived in Arlington, MA. We used pre-made alfredo sauce that I found at Wilson Farm in Lexington (quite possibly THE best farmer's-market-style grocery store in the world), tortellini, sun-dried tomatoes, chicken tenderloins and a squeeze of lemon/splash of wine.

It has since developed into something even better, if not as super easy or super quick, and we've renamed it "Chicken Alpharetta," which is a play on Alfredo and the town we live in (Alpharetta.) What can I say, we're so clever. ;)

Super-Easy, Super-Quick Version:

Ingredients

• 6-8 chicken tenderloins
• Container of pre-made alfredo sauce
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, small dice
• 1/2 lemon to squeeze juice
• Package of tortellini (or fettuccini)

Cut up tenderloins into bite-size pieces, pre-season with garlic, salt, pepper and mix in a little Italian dressing)

Sauté  them in a pan until nicely browned. Set aside.

Bring water for tortellini to a boil and cook tortellini to package directions while doing the next few steps.

Pour wine into the pan to deglaze and scrape up all the little flavor bits (wine should reduce a little and turn brownish)

Mix the alfredo sauce in (when we moved south, we used Buitoni's pre-made sauce and settled on their light version)

Add sun-dried tomatoes

Mix together and squeeze half of a lemon into the sauce mixture. Add chicken back in and once tortellini is done, strain and mix in.

Serve with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Note: over the years, we gave up the tortellini for fettuccini and ultimately to fresh GF (egg) fettuccini (we found ours at Whole Foods). We are not Gluten Free but we do notice a difference with how we feel after eating egg pasta vs. gluten pasta. If we don't have this on hand we use whole-wheat fettuccini.

Super-Delicious, Not-As-Quick Version:

I decided it was time to tackle making Alfredo Sauce from scratch this year - and happened to do this the day Georgia experienced some winter weather. It was life changing. The sauce, not the weather.

This recipe is heavily adapted from Cook's Illustrated - they are my go-to for recipe R&D and they did not disappoint.

Ingredients:

• Same as above except for the pre-made sauce
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream. Put in separate containers: 1 cup and 1/2 cup
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/8 or less depending on taste, teaspoon nutmeg (please, do not use powdered. It's worth it to buy whole nutmeg and grate it with a zester. Go easy - a little goes a long way.)

Pasta (note: you will be reserving 1/4 cup of your cooked pasta water)

Cook your chicken as indicated above.

Bring one cup of the cream and all of the butter to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until it reduces to about 2/3 cup. This will take 12-15 minutes. Be patient, though - don't go strictly by the clock. Watch the mixture and make sure it reduces. Stir here and there to be sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Take it off the heat and stir in the 1/2 cup of reserved cream (make sure this is at room temp), and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the pepper. Squeeze half of a room-temp lemon and stir in. Add about 1/4 cup of room-temp wine and stir in. Turn heat off.  *Note: have that wine out while you cook so that it is room temp when you're mixing it in. Cold wine will break the sauce.

Bring pasta water (salt your water!) and make the fresh pasta until just under al dente (if the cook time is 3 minutes - cook it for 2.) *Reserve 1/4 cup of this pasta water.

Meanwhile, bring the cream back to a simmer over medium-high heat; reduce to low and add pasta, parmesan, and nutmeg. Toss the pasta with tongs to combine until it coats everything and the cheese is melted. This will take about a minute, maybe 2.

Mix in the pasta water, sun-dried tomatoes, and chicken and season to taste.

Serve in pre-warmed bowls so that the sauce does not break (but here's the thing: it will still taste amazing if the sauce breaks). Preheat however you want - but hot water in the bowls poured out just prior to serving works well.

The difference between home made and premade was remarkable. Though, if you live near Wilson Farm: you really can't go wrong with their sauce since it's made in house.

And because no blog post is complete without a Fenway photo, here she is helping out with recipe research for smoker recipes later that evening.

If you could keep it down, please...tryin' to sleep.
(Reading Garden & Gun Magazine)