Rainy day grilled chicken and pasta Alfredo
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It’s a rainy Saturday and plans of going out later have been scrapped at their inception. There’s a storm and getting caught up in flashfloods just isn’t my idea of a relaxing weekend. Since yesterday afternoon, the only welcome thoughts I’ve been entertaining were to curl up in bed and watch a couple of favorite films and to eat an uncomplicated meal. Straight from school (I teach on Fridays), I hurriedly marinated a pack of chicken thighs that I had been thawing since lunch time. Putting the DVD player on “pause” in the middle of Ocean’s Thirteen, I left the comfort of my bed to place half of the chicken thighs in the oven. Because the chicken thighs had been marinating in the fridge for only about 45 minutes, as I expected, they were rather bland when they came out of the oven. My daughters noticed.
It’s not so much how many ingredients you put in your chicken marinade but, more often, it is how much time you allowed the chicken to absorb the flavors. In the same manner, it’s not so much how fancy or how colorful a pasta dish is but, rather, what you serve it with. I oven-grilled the remaining half of the chicken thighs today after marinating them overnight in the fridge and they were just lovely. Lovelier still was how well they went with the simplest pasta dish that can be whipped up in under 20 minutes — pasta with Alfredo sauce.
Would you believe it if I told you that the only ingredients for my chicken marinade were dark soy sauce, lemon juice and finely minced garlic? No kidding. But after swimming in the mixture overnight, the chicken meat had absorbed all the flavors and I couldn’t ask for much more. Simple, easy and totally satisfying.
A tip, though. Just before the chicken thighs went into the oven, neatly arranged on a rack inside a roasting pan, I smothered them with freshly ground pepper and mixed herbs that I mentioned in the pork steaks and oven fried potato chips entry. After twenty minutes in the oven at 175oC, the skins were crisp and the meat nicely done but not dry.
While the chicken was grilling in the oven, I boiled a pot of water and cooked some spaghetti in it. And while the pasta was cooking, I prepared the sauce. Alfredo sauce for pasta is really just the basic white sauce. Melt some butter, add cream (half-and-half also works) and grated cheese (Parmesan is traditional but not essential; cheddar will work just fine). How much sauce you need depends on how much pasta you have, naturally, but a good proportion is 2 tablespoonfuls of butter and 1/4 cup of grated cheese for every cup of cream or half-and-half. Stir the sauce until the cheese melts. Do not allow the sauce to boil for too long; otherwise, the milk will curdle. I turn off the heat as soon as the cheese melts and I add the seasonings off the fire. What seasonings? Salt, of course, and pepper. But I also like to add chopped parsley. And since acquiring three different kinds of mixed dried herbs in bottles with their own grinders, I’ve been using them quite a lot — I sprinkled the pasta with mixed herbs too.
Needless to say, the kids and I had a very, very satisfying meal. 
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20 Responses to “Rainy day grilled chicken and pasta Alfredo”
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The grilled chicken looks amazing! You are absolutely right about marinating chicken — the marinade needs time to penetrate, and then it is magic.
Comfort food to the max.
Hi Connie,If I don’t have Half-and-half available
Can I use Nestles cream right?Thanks.
Connie, try adding a bit of cream cheese to your Alfredo sauce. It adds body (thickness) to the sauce and a punch of umami (linamnam in tagalog).
my suggestion lang is to debone the chicken..
Yes, Luz, that’s a good choice.
Leah, thanks, I love the idea. So sinfully wonderful!
Jeff, why? Just like fish, more than half of the flavors of chicken come from the bones.
Hi. You might like to read what I thought of Ocean’s 13. After all, it’s World Heart Day today. Grilled chicken is the best but tomato-sauce based pasta is better for the heart. But I totally agree with you, masarap ang alfredo.
Hi Connie,
Great Pics.
Love cooking a recipe from Jaime Oliver, simliar to yours sans the cream and add some crushed garlic. Kids love it ( or at least my nieces do).
As for the chicken, IMHO, there is no rushing marinating.
the chicken looks so yummy! i love making white sauce with fettuccini or you can use any kind of pasta. depending on my mood, sometimes i make seafood - crab meat, shrimps, green peasand button head mushrooms or i make it with chicken, just add vegies like carrots, brocoli, green and red pepper, it’s yummy and satisying and great for potlucks too!
Em, we have a weird pasta situation at home. Older daughter Sam likes white sauce; younger daughter Alex likes red sauce. When I cook pasta, the sauces have to alternate to avoid complaints.
Franco, some cooks pierce the meat with a fork to quicken marinating. Still, 45 minutes won’t do.
dhaL, i love throwing in broccoli in white sauce too. i have a very old entry…
Hi Connie! Your pasta looks so white in the picture as compared to the brand I buy which is yellowish when cooked. What brand do you usually buy?
By the way, is quick melt cheese a good alternative to the cheddar cheese?
Have a nice day, Connie!
Florence, I use “Ideal”.
its just easier to eat and faster to cook, but thats my opinion oinly:)
uy! I love your new layout. It fits perfectly with your food blog.
been wanting something like this forever, auee. at last!!!
Tonight i made this recipe…WOW!!!! Sarap…10 star…i wish i am in Cebu so that I can share some to my family..i made a LOT..oh well i can eat it tom or next day;)
Hi Connie!
Your pasta Alfredo looks yummy..Gonna make some for my kids and husband. You know, we love pasta with white sauce. Hope you could also post your version of carbonara here.
Thanks a lot and GOD bless!
Hi Connie,
I wanted to do this but can i ask how much soy sauce and lemon juice you’re using for the marinade? Sobrang amateur kasi ako
Need an exact proportion everytime i cooked.
Thanks a lot for this site!
I prepared the grilled chicken for lunch today (only with pesto instead of alfredo) and all i have to say is THANK YOU SO MUCH
your site is really such a great treasure 
the meal was so simple to make and so delicious at the same time 
hi there! im just starting to learn how to cook and this recipe was really useful…i made this earlier for my friends and they loved it! (i wasnt even able to marinade the chicken overnight…) the pasta was great! i also tried using less cream and adding magnolia fresh milk instead and after some time, it became thicker and creamier!!
THANK GOD FOR YOUR SITE! there are alot of easy and healthy recipes i can use…and the ingredients are also easy to find…these will surely keep me from living on fast food…hehe….