Cajun Chicken Pasta Meal Prep _ One Pot Recipe

we're doing occasion Chicken pasta for this episode of the meal prep series .

It is also a one pot dish , so it's super easy to make and , of course , an easier cleanup .

And this one isn't based on a certain diet .

It is literally just good tasting food that you can have in your fridge or freezer whenever you want it .

Let's get straight into it .

Place it back , relax and enjoy .

All right .

The prep is really easy for this recipe .

We're going to need one brown or yellow onion .

This has had its tip removed and obviously being peeled , and then slice this in half through the root .

Make thin slices across , stopping just before the root , which will hold it all intact .

Make a horizontal slice through the centre to break up the formation , then dice this into small to medium sized pieces , trimming off any excess flesh from around the root .

Next is five cloves of garlic .

These can be run along a fine micro plane or box grater to create a paste .

You can also give them a rough chop if you want to go that way .

Last but not least , for the knife work is a 100 grammes of boneless and skinless chicken thigh .

We can slice this into thin strips and then just slice across to dice this into even size pieces .

But make sure they are the same size .

That way they'll cook at the same rate we can then add these to a large mixing bowl , and then we're going to add in 3.5 grammes of both onion and garlic powder for nice concentrated flavours .

2.5 grammes of both dried oregano and dried thyme for a nice herbaceous minty freshness .

One gramme of red chilli powder , which is optional , obviously , that will have a nice little bit of heat .

10 grammes of smoked paprika for nice , smoky , peppery notes seasoned with a large pinch of sea salt flakes and , of course , cracked black pepper .

About 20 cracks worth .

Let's then get in there with a spoon spatula or your clean hands .

It's up to you .

Just give this all a really good mix , making sure all of that chicken is covered in the spices .

And if your chicken is not a different colour after you've seasoned it , you definitely haven't seasoned it properly .

Now we all that out of the way .

Place a large pan or a pot over a high heat .

Add in 30 millilitres of olive oil and get this nice and hot .

Then we can add in that seasoned chicken , and we're gonna spread it out evenly , so it's not sitting on top of one another , and just make sure we see this for about 2.5 to 3 minutes .

But be careful .

The spices can easily burn at this stage , and if you do notice they get a little bit too dark , just turn the pan down a little bit , but keep the chicken moving around That way it will prevent it from burning .

Once you have a nice golden sear on the chicken , and the spices have released a lot of their flavour , we can add in the onion and the garlic , and then we're gonna continue mixing this around for about another 2.5 to 3 minutes just to get that onion translucent and that garlic to infuse its flavour into that chicken and those spices .

Same again , though , just keep this moving just to prevent anything from burning at all .

Next to go in is 750 millilitres of chicken stock .

This is going to deglaze the pan .

Bring up any of those stuck flavours as well as being the liquid that our pasta will cook in .

And then we're gonna follow that up with 600 grammes of diced or crushed tomatoes .

And this is about 1.5 cans worth , and you can save the other half for another dish or recipe to that .

Also , add in 200 millilitres of thickened cream .

This is going to mix really well with the tomatoes to create a nice rose based sauce .

Obviously , season to taste with sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper , and about another 20 cracks worth .

Let's then jump back in there with the spatula .

Mix it all really well for those flavours to become friends , and you'll notice that beautiful rose colour start to form .

And this mix with those herbs and spices creates the most Fantastic Flav sauce with it all mixed through , though we're going to allow it to come to a simmer .

Then we're going to add in 600 grammes of penne or a pasture of your choice .

But I highly recommend penny because it's a great vessel to hold all of that sauce .

Give this all a really good mix through making sure each piece of penne is submerged in this sauce , and then we're going to allow this to cook for 15 minutes uncovered , and we're going to cook this over a medium high heat , and you wanna make sure you stir this every now and again just so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot .

Now , after 15 minutes , you can see that this has thickened up really nicely and that pasta is perfect al dente .

Just give this another mix through , and if you really wanted to , you can chuck some flat leaf parsley in there to give us a pop of colour .

But with that done , just remove it from the stovetop .

As for serving up , this will evenly divide between five meal prep containers .

There's 750 millilitres in size .

If you're wondering , and I do have a link for these in the description , we're gonna top these with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper , which both are optional .

But that leaves us with these absolutely delicious , creamy Cajun chicken pasta meal preps that are perfect for any time of the week .

And like I said in the intro , this isn't for us specific diet .

It is just great tasting food , as you can see , as per the macro cards right here .

OK , so we've everything done .

We now have all of these portioned out .

I do recommend letting them cool down for about 20 minutes just because we don't want to make these steam if we place the lids on , but once they have cooled down , put the lids on .

They'll last in the fridge for up to four days and in the freezer for up to four months .

You can eat these cold , or you can reheat them .

Place them back in a pan or in a microwave just until they're hot .

It is completely up to you .

As always , though , the best part about all of this is , of course , we can then dig in the flavour in that is nice and smoky .

It's a little bit sweet .

You've got the cream and tomato creating that nice rose sauce , which is a perfect texture for something like this .

And of course , it's all cooked in the one pot , so it's super easy to clean up .

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Thanks for watching .