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A whole chicken, part 5

Since the next piece I thawed was the other breast, I decided that I wanted a remake of part 3 with a slight do-over on part 4 with a better executed roasted veggie sauce concept.

I did the same M9 seasoning on the chicken breast and roasted it in the oven. Nothing special or different there. The sauce is where things got a little different.

I used orange bell pepper, carrot, onion, wood ear mushrooms, and kale tonight. See? I can cook without garlic, especially if I...forget the garlic until halfway through cooking because I'm distracted by other bullshit. 

I removed the leaf from the kale and chopped it up, then quartered the mushrooms. 

The carrot, bell pepper, and onion were sliced up, thrown on a baking sheet, doused with extra virgin olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted at 425 until the onions started blackening around the edges, at which point I dumped them (and the olive oil) into my food processor.

I mostly pureed the veggies, then added about a quarter cup of my pasta water and about a quarter cup of cream (one at a time, both while the food processor was running) until everything was well blended.

While the chicken was cooking and the sauce was blending/sitting and waiting for my slow ass, I started sautéing the mushrooms in extra virgin olive oil on a fairly low heat. Once they were spitting pretty good, I dumped in the kale and let them cook together (with a pinch or two of salt) until the leaf had cooked down a bit. I added a dash of white wine during that time, too, just to keep a little liquid in the pan.

Once the kale was cooked down a decent bit, I poured in the sauce from the food processor, mixed everything fairly thoroughly, and then let it reduce a bit (the sauce was runnier than I preferred, but that was so it could cook down some). Once it hit the consistency I wanted, I dumped the fettucine in and got everything nice and coated.

I kept plating simple again. I semi-spun the pasta and got it set near the center of my plate, sprinkled a little shredded parmesan on it, then cracked a little extra black pepper on top. The chicken was sliced and laid alongside because I'm not really sure what else to do with chicken with pasta. I haven't found anything better yet. Sue me.

The sauce definitely came out better than the last time, which was really just soup, but still wasn't quite what I was going for. I think the carrots are my first misstep because they definitely come through a bit stronger than the other flavors. I also noticed when eating leftovers of the soupsauce that the onions ended up bringing a flavor reminiscent of pho, which is cool if you want pho, but not if you're looking for a sauce. I'm definitely going to keep going with the bell peppers, but may try red next time. Also, I'll probably forego adding pasta water and just opt for cream for extra liquid to add. Maybe a little butter? Maybe an egg for a carbonara-style thickening? There are plenty of options, so I'll have plenty more to try.

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