Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti

Sometimes, you need a recipe that doesn’t involve a lot of prep-time OR cook time, one that calls for ingredients you already have, or are repurposing…an easy recipe, in other words, for when you don’t have a lot of time.

Like, for instance, when you have a late afternoon meeting with the startup company you recently started working for, and which just released its app for sale! (Okay, so this isn’t just a hypothetical…)

For tonight, that meant trying out a dish I saw on Tracey’s Culinary Adventures for a pretty unique Italian-Mexican fusion dish called chicken enchilada spaghetti. I got home at ten to 6 and was sitting down to eat at 6:45. That’s because I utilized leftover rotisserie chicken, some cheese we had lying around in our fridge, and some spices and pantry staples we had in our cabinets. Saute the aromatics and spices together, add the chicken and a can of enchilada sauce, add cooked pasta, melt in some shredded cheddar, top with cilantro and serve. That’s it. Is it gourmet cooking? Hardly. But it’s a super-easy, intriguing meal combining the comforting chew of pasta and melted cheese with the warm spices of Mexican cuisine.

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 45 min.

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (or equivalent amount of meat from pre-cooked rotisserie chicken)
• 1 1/2 cups red enchilada sauce (most of a 19.5-0z can)
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
• fresh cilantro, chopped

Method

• Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain and set aside
• Meanwhile, add the oil to a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika and cayenne, and cook until the garlic is fragrant and the spices are toasted, about 1 minute
• Add the chicken and the enchilada sauce and stir to incorporate. Reduce the heat to low and add the pasta to the skillet. Use tongs to toss until the pasta is coated with the sauce. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cheese, continuing to toss until melted and combined. Garnish with cilantro and serve

More Noodles!

Hey guys, sorry it’s been a while since my last post…I haven’t had much time for cooking lately, as it seems my mercurial, obsessive nature leads me to commit my full energy to one pursuit at a time while ignoring all others, and I’ve been cycling through some of my other interests, like learning blues guitar, getting back into still-life/landscape drawing, improving my chess game, getting myself to the gym, finishing the Hunger Games trilogy, and sorting out the whole grad school/career thing.

I actually have been keeping up on my food writing, though. I’ve had the privilege of taking a food writing course at Stanford with esteemed food journalist/author Jeannette Ferrary, so I’ve been trying to think of ways to improve  Noodle Therapy, and to take something away to contribute to the site. In our latest assignment, I wrote about the science behind comfort food, for all you science-y types who may be wondering why food can make us feel so good physiologically. I posted the essay, titled “Sugar, Salt, and Serotonin: The Psychobiological Approach to Comfort Food” on its own page for anyone interested. I promise it’s not as boring as it sounds…

So this week, we tried a take on a Michael Mina recipe that I’d been sitting on for quite some time: strozzapreti with lamb ragu. Strozzapreti is a hand-rolled pasta similar to cavatelli, but in long pieces, like penne. The ragu featured both canned and fresh cherry tomatoes, and lamb’s ubiquitous partner, mint, to create an interesting savory combination full of sweet bursts of tomato, the menthol hit of mint leaf, all with an undercurrent of rich, gamey lamb. It wasn’t the best ragu I ever had (or even made) but for lamb-lovers, this seems to be a popular dish at the moment, and with cherry tomato season coming up, now’s the time to try this one out!

Strozzapreti with Lamb Ragu

Total Time: 2 hrs. 15 min. (45 min. prep; 1 hr. 45 min. simmering)

Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper or 1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds ground lamb
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 large fennel bulb—halved, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 1/2 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons harissa
• One 14-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped, liquid reserved
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 pound dried strozzapreti pasta
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 6 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced mint leaves
• Freshly grated sheep milk cheese, such as Everona Stony Man or pecorino, for serving

Method

• In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, combine the fennel, cumin, Aleppo pepper and peppercorns and cook over moderate heat until fragrant, 2 minutes. Let cool, then wrap in cheesecloth and tie into a bundle.

• Add the oil to the casserole and heat. Add half of the lamb, season with salt and pepper and cook over high heat, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned, 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the lamb to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining lamb.
• Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the casserole. Add the garlic, onion and fennel and cook over moderate heat until softened, 8 minutes. Stir in the spice bundle, paprika, harissa, tomatoes and their liquid and the stock. Return the lamb and accumulated juices to the casserole and bring to a simmer.

• Cover the ragù and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and simmer until thickened, about 50 minutes longer. Discard the spice bundle and season the ragù with salt and pepper.

• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and return to the pot. Add the ragù and stir. Fold in the cherry tomatoes, scallions and half of the mint. Season with salt and pepper; transfer to a large bowl. Top with the remaining mint and serve, passing the cheese at the table.

MAKE AHEADThe lamb ragù can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat gently.