Talking Food with Cory Bahr: Cajun Chicken Pasta

I'm Chef Cory Bahr and today we're talking Cajun chicken pasta.

And we have our one-pot pasta. This is something that pleases the entire family. Today we're going to do the Louisiana version. Rigatoni. It's our Cajun chicken pasta with andouille. So we have our chicken thigh meat, you know, from the last episode. I love using the thigh. Number one because it's very forgiving. Number two it's delicious. Number three it's very economical. So we're going to just toss that in some Tony Chachere's. Everybody loves Tony's. We're gonna go right into our hot oil with that seasoned chicken. Gonna let that sear nicely. This is something that pleases all the senses. For those of y'all who love Louisiana food. It's quick, it's simple. And again, it's not something you're gonna have to fight the kids on. It's chicken pasta. We're gonna add some of our Louisiana ingredients. This is poblano pepper. I love using that choice of bell pepper, some red onion or purple onion. Some celery and of course, a healthy dose of garlic and our chopped andouille sausage. If you're vegetarian or vegan, you can omit all the animal products. It really makes this like a jambalaya pasta with just the vegetables. We're just gonna move this around something that nicely. This one goes really quick y'all. We're gonna add our tomatoes. We like even those grape tomatoes. You can find them at any grocery store. They're fantastic. Some cream cheese. Cream cheese is gonna add to the richness and creaminess of the pasta. And plus for those of you out there balling on a budget, cream cheese is a lot cheaper than parmesan and adds that nice creamy texture that you're looking for in delicious pasta. A little dash of cream to help it along. Now we just gotta wait till everything comes together. We're going to let this cook for about four or five minutes and we're going to add our pasta.

That smells delicious! You can really get that Creole spice from the Tony Chachere's, the celery, the poblano pepper, red onion. It's super colorful too. So if you're cooking for your neighbors, hey man, this is a great, easy one-pot pasta for the whole neighborhood. And you know something about Tony's, if you know how to use it, it saves you from having to have every other spice in the cabinet. It provides the heat the salt, pepper, that really great depth of flavor right there that everybody in Louisiana loves. We got a nice stir. Yeah, that's looking good. All right, we're gonna add our rigatoni faster just fold that in. Some handmade rigatoni but again you can use whatever you like. Penne pasta works nice. Something that'll hold that sauce. Let's give it some love, a little stir here. Oh yeah, that's looking great. Tons of flavor from the andouille, the Tony's, that trinity ... and nice acidity from those tomatoes.. just for a little extra kick. Finish it off some of that Creole seasoning, that Tony Chachere's seasoning. There you have it. Hey, if you want to cook this recipe for yourself, go to KNOE.com and click on Talking Food.