Creamy Chicken Pasta

This is one of my easy meals. It's even easier if the chicken is already cut up in the freezer. It is very tasty and, even though the title suggests otherwise, contains no dairy. It did take me a little while to get this right as rice milk can make things sweet and no amount of salt seems to right that. The key ingredient in this dish is the whiskey. For quite a while I forgot about the failsafe alcohol and if I had no stock then food got even more bland. Failsafe mums will also like the little bit of hidden veg. It is hard to get enough vegetables into our kids and a meal like this is usually another meal devoid of a lot of nutrition. It's not a great deal of veg, but you still want it to taste like a creamy pasta sauce and not a stew.

Chicken Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

•  1 Tbsp failsafe oil
• 1 small leek diced finely (or left larger if you like it like that)
•  3 cloves garlic (crushed, diced or sliced)
• small piece of celery finely diced
• 500g chicken breast cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup of whiskey
• 3 Tbsp veg puree*
• 1 cup of rice milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cornflour (or other GF flour)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley

Method

1.  Place a large frying pan over a medium heat and heat oil
2. Saute leeks, garlic and celery until translucent
3. Add chicken and brown all over
4. Add whiskey and bring to boil 
5. Add veg puree and rice milk. Simmer for about 10 mins or until chicken is cooked through.
6. Thicken sauce with flour, add salt and simmer for a couple of minutes.
7. Stir egg through sauce and immediately turn off heat. (The heat in the sauce will cook the egg without it turning into scrambled eggs) 
8. Stir through chopped parsley and serve over pasta.

* For veg puree, chop allowed veg and steam in microwave. Puree when cool and freeze in small containers or ice cube trays ready to be added to anything you can get away with. My puree contained 1 swede, 1 cup cabbage, 1 stick celery and half a choko. Pretty much just the veg that I had on hand.

Variations - Dairy -  Use a combination of milk and cream and add a nice big dollop of ricotta.
                 - Gluten - Use normal pasta.
                 - Eggs -  This is totally optional. It does add an extra bit of thickness and richness, but this dish is perfectly good without it.


If you have any leftovers, pop them into the freezer and they make a great pie filling with a bit more pureed veg added.