Creamy Salsa Verde, but not really

Look, I will try to cook anything at least once.

I’ve never made a salsa verde or tomatillo sauce or green sauce or or or…

After a friend shared a food memory with me, I had to try it.

Hello, beautiful.

To make this gorgeous dish, you’ll do a few simple things with a few simple ingredients. 😉 One note before you start, I used my Vitamix blender and would recommend a heavy duty, large capacity blender for this recipe.

Ingredients:
About 2 pounds tomatillos – I think I had a bit more than that
2 serrano peppers, remove seeds if you’d like it less spicy
4-6 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 large sweet onion, roughly chopped
about 1 cup cilantro
1 – 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened
about 1/2 – 1 cup crema*
1 pound spaghetti, cooked

Turn oven to broil – mine has a high and low setting, I used the high setting, and my oven rack is in the middle.

Remove outer layer of tomatillos and toss in a sink of water – they can be quite sticky, if you’ve never worked with them before — and wash them well. Cut the tomatillos in half, not top to bottom, though, but through the middle like you might cut open a biscuit. Place them on a baking sheet, flesh side down, drizzle with olive oil, and pop them in the oven for about 12-14 minutes. You want them to have a bit of char.

If you’re not quite as obnoxious as me, and you choose to make a smaller batch, you can use one baking sheet for all of it, but I’m extra.

While those are in the oven, cut the tops off the peppers and remove seeds, if you want. The more seeds you leave in, the spicier it’ll be – you do you. Rough chop the onion. Add the peppers, onion, and garlic to the other baking sheet.

Remove the tomatillos when they’re soft and have a decent char. Pop in the sheet with the peppers, for about 12 minutes, and remove when they are soft and have a nice char.

Wait about 10 minutes for the peppers to cool and rest a bit and then begin adding to the blender – tomatillos (and all their juices), peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro, and cream cheese. Pulse until well blended. Remove from blender into a large saucepan or skillet. Add the crema beginning with about 1/2 cup. Season with a bit of kosher salt and warm through. If it’s still a bit too spicy, add more crema. The consistency should be a bit thinner than alfredo sauce and a little chunky. Taste and season as you see fit.

This sauce can be used over chicken enchiladas, as a dip for nachos or tortilla chips, on top of burritos or tacos, or like I did it here – over spaghetti.

If I’d had some monterey jack cheese, I would’ve added it on top, I didn’t, but you should. 😉

*crema is table cream and can be found in the refrigerated area of the grocery store near the Mexican cheeses. If you can’t find crema, you can use sour cream, but please look for the crema. It’s worth it.

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Penne with Chicken and Alfredo Sauce

My son will eat lots of things. He’s not particularly picky. His favorite dish and most requested for his birthday dinner is Taco Salad. He’s easy to please in the food department! Another favorite of his is “Chicken Alfredo” — so delicious.

When I was getting processed foods out of my diet a zillion years ago, it forced me to learn how to make lots of things that were really easy to buy already made. Alfredo sauce was surprisingly easy to make, much easier than I expected due to it’s decadent taste. I always make mine with chicken, but that can be skipped, obviously, if chicken isn’t your jam!

This is also one of those dishes that is hard to measure out and I’m pretty positive I’ve never measured any of it. So, exactly everything below is an estimate! Alfredo sauce is very much a feel and taste recipe!

Ingredients:
Olive oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick, I used a bit less, but I want you to live your best life)
1 c heavy cream, warmed
1 c milk (I used 2%), warmed
2-3 T flour
2 c parmesan, freshly grated
Penne pasta, cooked according to package directions

Wash and pat dry chicken breasts. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season one side of the chicken with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning. Once the oil is warm, lay the chicken, seasoned side down in the skillet. While it’s cooking, season the other side the same way. Cook for about 5-6 minutes each side – the chicken will NOT be done. Remove from pan to a cutting board.

While the chicken cools off, begin the alfredo sauce in the same pan. Cut up the stick of butter and add to the pan, add the garlic and cook for about one minute. Now we’re making a roux – add the flour – start with two heaping tablespoons and stir, scrapping up any bits left from the chicken in the pan. If it’s still a bit runny, add a tiny bit of flour at a time. We want it to have the consistency of … uhm, wet or kinetic sand? LOL
We’re cooking off the flour so it’s not raw… it should turn a light tan.

Once there, start adding the warmed cream. (I just blast it for a minute or so in the microwave – I don’t want to add cold cream to a hot pan.) Stir. Add milk. Stir. Add more cream. Stir. Add more milk. Stir. Add cheese (please don’t use the stuff in the can or the bag, grate it fresh from the block, please and thank you.). This is where the feel comes into play. We want it to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, but not stick there. It’ll take some practice. Season with salt and pepper. And maybe Italian seasoning if that’s how you wanna roll. It’s definitely how I wanna roll.

Cut chicken into chunks or slices or star shapes if that’s how you wanna do things – add to pan with sauce. Mix well. Reduce heat to low-medium, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the chicken is done. Taste your sauce. Adjust to your taste. Serve over pasta of your choice. Top with more fresh cheese. Or eat it straight from the pan – do you, boo boo. Enjoy!