Chicken Bacon Alfredo on Spaghetti Squash

 
   Happy Easter, everyone! How was your long weekend? Hope you all got some time off to spend gorging yourself on bunny ears and Cadbury eggs! :)

   We had a great weekend, did a lot of stuff around the house. Sounds boring but I actually like getting rid of things and organizing! We finally got our garage cleaned out, and I'm surprised that A&E wasn't in my driveway, attempting to film an episode of hoarders! It is seriously amazing how much stuff a family accumulates in a short period of time. Sure feels good to get rid of it and clean up.

  Now, let's address this "small" issue of Easter candy. Who still has a chocolate moustache and is hiding in the closet with their kids Easter basket? Don't look away, I see you! Ok, maybe I was looking in the mirror there...but still!! We went for brunch in the morning, then a great egg hunt that my friend Shanda and her family put on every year. I was doing so awesome, I wasn't even interested in anything. Then later in the day hit. I was tired and cranky. Grey wanted to pick from his basket after supper, and there they were. Those shiny, delicious little eggs were staring me right in the eye. I tried the 'ol "I'll just have one, then that's it..." then the "ok, 3 and I'm done...." ending with the solid "well, there goes a whole workout to god damn chocolate eggs!" Why??? Why even start? I try to stick to only having stuff like that when it's really worth it and I really like whatever it is. And I'm totally a dark chocolate gal or caramel. These were neither! I swear, there is something about those stupid, perfect little hard eggs in their stupid, pretty wrappers that makes me blind. Until I realize I've had too many and am now chocolate wasted. Sigh....thank god for bedtime and elastic yoga pants. Not in that order.

   After my chocolate-whore episode I felt the need to bust out of the gates with a great, new crowd pleaser tonight. Grey is off school all week so it gives me some more freedom during the day to experiment with recipes. This is a recipe for Alfredo sauce that won't shoot the button on your pants clear across the room. It's easy and honestly I was surprised how great it was. I doubled the batch, thinking I needed too but I actually think it was fine the way it was. I have a lot left over. I think I'll try freezing it to see what happens. I had a few spaghetti squash that had no plans for the evening, so I decided to make a "pasta" Alfredo with chicken and bacon. You could obviously use this over regular pasta instead. Let me know if you try anything different with it! I cooked the chicken breast in the morning so it was ready to go, and crisped the bacon. Once the squash was done I just through it all together and BAM! Yum.

Chicken Bacon Alfredo on Spag Squash
You Need:
2-4 boneless chicken breasts
1 large spaghetti squash
3-4 pieces of bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled (try to use locally sourced bacon if you can)

Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
2-4 cloves garlic, minced (depending on taste)
3 tbsp flour
1 cup cool chicken broth
1 cup whole milk (almond milk is fine, but make sure it's unsweetened)
3/4 cup fresh grated parm
1/2 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
parsley for garnish (optional)

Heat oven to 375 and roast your spaghetti squash. (cut in half, remove seeds and roast cut side down on a baking tray with an inch of water, for about 45 min, until outer skin is fork tender.)
When done flip over and let them cool a while. 15-20 min at least.

If you haven't already, cook your chicken breasts in the oven and slice into thinner strips, or however you want to serve them.

When the squash and chicken are done, start the sauce. In a medium sauce pan, add the olive oil and heat over med about a minute- you don't want it boiling.
Add the garlic and cook about a minute while stirring often.

Sprinkle the flour over top and stir, stir, stir!!

You need to stir or whisk this constantly or it will be a clumpy mess. If you feel its seized up, add a splash more oil or a tsp of room temp butter and loosen it up. Slowly whisk in the broth. Then the milk. Whisk your heart out. No need to break a sweat, just keep it smooth looking! You should have no lumps.

Simmer on very low until you are ready to serve. Stirring occasionally.
Scrape your spaghetti squash out into strands and into a large bowl.
When you are ready to serve, add the parm cheese into your sauce and turn the heat up a bit, just until melted. You guessed it, keep stirring!
Plate your spaghetti squash, the chicken and the bacon on top. Spoon your sauce over top and add sea salt and cracked pepper if desired.

If your squash and chicken have cooled while you were making the sauce, add the squash to a large pan with some olive oil and just toss it to heat back up. You could also dump it all in there and mix it up, serving that way, if you have a deep enough pan.

There you go! A versatile sauce and totally delish! :)

original recipe pingback to "gimmesomeoven.com"