- [John] Hey, you're watching
Preppy Kitchen where I, John
Kanell, teach you how to make
delicious homemade dishes to
share with your family and friends.
Today, it's an amazing Chicken
Alfredo that's packed with
flavor, just a couple ingredients,
comes together in a snap,
and there's not even any
heavy cream, it's a little bit
lighter.
Let's get started.
Brian's mom's favorite dish is
Alfredo, so, my sister in law
actually texted me because
she's visiting and she's like,
"You know, if you want, you
could make some Alfredo for
her", and I was like, "Yes,
this will happen, she's going to
leave a happy camper".
Let's talk about the chicken.
You can buy some grilled
chicken, you can grill your own,
you can bake some chicken.
I ended up just browning mine
in a little bit of butter with
salt and pepper,
and then baking it until
it's done, through 375.
Cover it with foil, while it's resting,
and then come back to it,
like, 20 minutes later.
For this recipe you can
chose a pasta of your choice.
I made a batch of fettuccine.
Set a large pot of water
to boil, salt generously,
and then cook your pasta
according to the directions on the
package, unless you made your own pasta.
Reserve one cup of that
magical pasta water.
If you make your pasta a
little early, just add a dab of
butter to it, that way it
won't stick and it will be
delicious and ready for you
when your sauce is done.
Now, my recipe calls for
three cloves of garlic,
thinly sliced, so this is a
whole conversation on my shrimp
scampi recipe, but three garlic cloves.
Let me know in the comments,
how many that equals for you.
I remember once my friend
Catherine was sharing that her
husband had made dinner, and
he, the recipe called for like
one clove of garlic, but he
was like a newbie, so he made
the recipe with one head of
garlic and she was complaining
and I was like, "That
sounds about right to me".
(laughing)
Oh, and also when I prep my
garlic, I like to give it a
little smash, and then that
really releases the skin.
It also kind of, like, wakes
the garlic up and helps to
release the oils.
See, like, you open a garlic
clove up and it turns out
there's two cloves in there so,
what, are you going to throw
this away?
Of course not, you're going
to use it in the recipe.
Three cloves just turned in to
five, and there's no regrets.
Give your garlic a thin slice,
so we're going to sliver it
and a sharp knife really helps
for this.
When you're cutting,
you're going to use your
fingernail as a guide.
So it's held with, like, the
tips of your fingers vertically
and that way,
there's no finger chopping.
We've sliced our garlic and
now I have one cup of shredded
fontina cheese, and that the sort of
thing you shred on your
own you don't buy shredded fontina.
So, let's shred it up.
If we have a little bit
more, that's totally fine.
This is a really, like, nice
gooey cheese, you're going to
love it in the sauce.
Okay, so that's one cup of
cheese, that's how you measure
it.
(clicks tongue)
And, the rest we just nibble
on as we move through the
recipe.
Now, we're going to go on to the burner.
On medium heat, we're adding
about 3 tablespoons of olive
oil, precisely measured, mind you.
Let that heat up for a second,
you'll see ripples on the
surface of the olive oil,
that's how you know it's ready.
Anyone have a good method for getting
(sniffing)
that garlic smell off of your fingers?
I'm asking for a friend.
I saw that there were these
things thar were like stainless
steel bars of soap kind of.
You're supposed to wash your
hands with them afterwards, but
I haven't been able to find them.
I saw them in a catalog a long time ago.
All right, so we see it sizzling.
Move it around the pan
and stir frequently.
Oh my gosh, it's so fragrant.
(sniffs)
(sighs)
I love the smell of
garlic, in the morning.
Once your garlic is toasted,
start adding in about
nine cups of spinach.
It seems like a lot,
but you know it will
all go down to nothing.
That's good.
Add in about a quarter teaspoon
of chile flakes, that's
optional, if you don't like any heat,
you can omit them.
Move it around, move it around.
Whoa.
What's going on over there?
Hello.
Half a teaspoon of salt.
This is reminding me a bit
of my spanakopita recipe.
Click up here for that,
that's a Greek spinach pie.
I made it with my mom and it
is one of my favorite things
to eat.
Reminds me of my childhood.
Okay.
After your spinach is wilted,
and the nice thing is the
spinach is releasing water, and
that's preventing the garlic
from burning, so don't let the
garlic get too brown before
you add the spinach in.
Cause while I love garlic,
don't love burnt garlic.
No, no, no.
Okay, now we're going to
add our cup of cheese.
As well as 4 ounces, or like
half a package of cream cheese.
And in case you're wondering,
yes you can use the reduced
fat version of this too,
they both work fine.
What you have to do now is
just stir it until it's all
combined.
You're combining the cream
cheese and the fontina, and
look at this.
This looks amazing already.
So fast.
And you know how you like buy
all the salad greens, you're
like, "I'm going to make
salad every day this week".
And then they go rotten and
you're like, "Oh, those poor
salad greens".
Hello, toss them in here.
So you have the option
of like, you know what?
No salad today, let's
make an Alfredo sauce.
(laughing)
Okay, we're just gonna keep
all the way down to low,
and at this point, we can
add our pasta in batches.
So, lets start adding that pasta in.
Little bit at a time.
I started making really big
batches of pasta because one of
my kids, George, loves plain noodles.
He's like, "Plain noodles.
I want plain noodles".
I'm like, "Okay, you
get some plain noodles".
So we're just going to keep
adding this in, and you're
like, "Oh my gosh, this pasta
is getting really thick,
what's happening?"
Well, aren't you glad that
we reserved one cup of that
magical pasta water?
I bet you are.
So now, a little bit at a time,
you can lubricate this with
the pasta water, and it will
kind of, like, let everything
come together.
And give you just the right consistency.
You have total control now.
By the by, you can also add
some black pepper to taste if
you want.
Okay, so just keep adding
some more pasta, until you're
like, "Okay. That's enough
pasta to sauce ratio for me".
Once that's the case we're
going to take this off the heat.
And we're not done yet because,
to this, we're adding a
quarter cup of Greek yogurt.
Add the Greek yogurt it's
super creamy, and yes, we are
making and Alfredo sauce
without cream and you can't tell
the difference.
This needs to get thinned out
with some more pasta water.
Switching to tongs.
There we go.
That's perfect.
Yes.
That tastes great.
I'm going to add in a
little bit more pepper.
I saw this pepper grinder
at the store by the way, and
yes, I was like, "Oh this
copper is calling my name," but
then I noticed it's a Greek
pepper mill and I was like, "It
was meant to be, I have to have it".
All right, I'm just adding
in a sprinkle more of salt.
Now we're going to plate
this up with some chicken and
enjoy.
Making dinner and a YouTube
video at the same time is one
of my very most favorite
things because it's like, oh.
Two birds, one stone, bam.
(laughing)
I don't know if it's a rule,
but I feel like you need to
have a glass of wine with
Chicken Alfredo slash any pasta
dish.
So, opening up a glass of white for this.
We're going to be enjoying it.
And,
this is going to be very good.
And believe you and me, I earned it.
If you like this recipe,
check out my savory playlist.
All my savory favorites, so
many great ideas for dinner, and
they're all delicious.
All right, time for a bite.
That fresh garlic, the cheeses,
everything works together.
It is just so simple.
Sometimes, the simplest things are best.
If you like my videos, hit
that like button and subscribe,
and I'll see you in the next video.
