Chicken, mushrooms, and delicious caramelized onions cooked up in a wine and cream sauce and served over rigatoni. A lightened up version of the Macaroni Grill favorite.
My mom’s birthday is in March and for about three years in a row, my family would do one of two things. We would go out to dinner at Macaroni Grill, where she would order Carmela’s Chicken, or we would all get together and I’d make a copy cat version of Carmela’s Chicken for her.
The recipe I have for it is a great copycat recipe. It tastes exactly like the very tasty restaurant version.
And would I make it exactly one time a year.
Why would I make this delicious, fantastic recipe only once a year? Because that thing had 20 ounces of heavy cream in it. TWENTY OUNCES!! In fat and calories, that’s a lot.
For a birthday dinner, fine, but it’s not really the sort of thing I could justify making the rest of the year.
So for today, I’ve lightened up the recipe a bit, and the end result is surprisingly low-calorie (under 500) for a creamy pasta dish. Plus, I think I like this version even better.
Do you like caramelized onions? If you do, you’re going to love this dish. It’s creamy, just a bit cheesy, wonderfully smokey and slightly sweet from the onions. It definitely feels like grown up pasta!
The caramelized onions are the most important part of this dish. They must be caramelized, not browned, not softened, not mostly cooked through.
They must be dark, ugly, and perfect. Otherwise your final product is going to be missing the rich sweet base note that ties the whole thing together.
The caramelizing process is a little time consuming, but it’s not hard. If you’ve never caramelized onions before, don’t worry, Simply Recipes has a great step-by-step tutorial on the simple process.
Have a quick read through it before starting here, so you know what each step should look like. Believe me, once you taste the finished product, you will be a convert forever.
Ingredients
Caramelized Onions
- ▢ 2 large onions sliced into 3/4-inch half moons
- ▢ 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ▢ 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ▢ 1 teaspoon sugar
Chicken
- ▢ 1 pound (about 2 small) boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded thin
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Pasta and Sauce
- ▢ 12 ounces rigatoni pasta
- ▢ 1 tablespoon butter
- ▢ 8 ounces mushrooms
- ▢ 1 teaspoon basil
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- ▢ 1/3 cup sherry or Marsala* plus more for deglazing
- ▢ 1 1/2 cups half and half*
- ▢ 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
- ▢ Parsley optional, roughly chopped for garnish
Instructions
Caramelize Onions
- In a large, heavy-bottom pan, heat butter and oil. Add onions, stirring to coat in the oil and spread evenly over the pan. Cook, stirring every few minutes for 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle sugar over the top.
- Continue to cook, stirring and scraping every few minutes for 20 to 40 minutes, until onions are a deep amber color. Set aside.
Cook Your Chicken and Pasta
- In a medium pot, lightly salt and start your water for noodles. When water begins to boil, add pasta. Cook according to directions on the box, drain and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Spray pan with cooking spray and add chicken. Cook through, 5-8 minutes per side, until an instant-read thermometer reads at least 160°F.
- Transfer chicken to a cutting board. Deglaze the pan with a little of your wine and and pour back over the chicken. Tent with foil to keep warm and set aside.
Make the Sauce
- In the same pan, melt butter and add mushrooms. Cook mushrooms until they are just shy of your preferred level of doneness. (For me, about 5 minutes.)
- Add basil, caramelized onions, salt and pepper and cook for one minute.
- Add the wine and cook for another minute.
- Add the half and half and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced and thickened.
- While sauce is simmering, cut your chicken into strips or cubes, whatever you prefer.
- Add Parmesan cheese and chicken to the sauce and stir. Stir in noodles and heat until warmed through.
- Garnish with parsley, serve, and enjoy.
Notes
Nutritional Information Carmela’s Chicken Adapted From: Food.com Caramelized Onions Instructions Adapted From: Simply Recipes
Make-ahead Instructions: This dish is a great make-ahead dinner. The onions and chicken can be made up to two days in advance, so all you have to do day of is cook the pasta, saute the mushrooms and make the sauce. The only cooking change you need to make is to add the chicken when you add in the half and half, to ensure that it gets heated through. Low-yield Instructions: For the butter, half of 1 tablespoon is equal to 1 1/2 teaspoon. 1/3 cup wine halves at 2 tablespoons, 2 teaspoons and half of 1/4 cup of Parmesan is 2 tablespoons. The time it takes to caramelize the onion will be slightly reduced. No other cooking changes are needed. Freezer Notes: I don’t recommend this dish for freezing as the sauce and the noodles don’t hold up well.
Slow cooker baked potatoes piled high with broccoli and a glorious cheddar cheese sauce. Perfect for Meatless Mondays!
Welcome to our March blog series. After January salads and February soups, we’re tackling something I’m a little less comfortable with, Meatless Monday meals.
I love the idea of Meatless Monday. I think it can be hugely impactful on your health, your wallet, and the environment. But in practice, I’m pretty terrible at it.
The recipes you’ll see featured here this month are most of the vegetarian recipes (that aren’t some form of mac and cheese) that I would consider tried and true in my recipe file.
This is good for you, because it means they are all 100 percent meat-eater approved and delicious, but says something sad about me considering I was vegan for nearly a year in college (I lived on oreos and vegan hot dogs).
Our first recipe is a comfort classic with a convenience twist, Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes With Broccoli and Cheese Sauce. Baked potatoes are a great base for Meatless Mondays, because who doesn’t like potatoes? Unfortunately, their long cooking time can make them impractical for busy weeknights.
Guess what? Problem solved.
Did you know you can cook potatoes in a slow cooker!? Turns out, toss those things in the slow cooker in the morning, set to low, and by the time you are home in the evening, they are perfectly cooked and ready to eat.
That means that for this recipe, all you have to do before eating is boil some broccoli and make the quick and easy cheese sauce , and you have your Meatless Monday meal on the table in like 20 minutes.
And oh, that cheese sauce, once you taste it, you’ll be seeing it in your dreams. It’s creamy, tangy and loaded with sharp cheddar and cayenne.
Pile your potato high with broccoli and then smother that thing in this glorious cheese sauce and you’ll completely forget that this Monday meal is meatless!
More Easy Weeknight Meals
- Pesto Chicken Sandwich on Sourdough
- Chicken Shawarma With Yogurt Sauce
- Sharp Cheddar Broccoli and Ham Chowder
- Easy Weeknight Chicken Cacciatore
- Ham and Potato Soup
Ingredients
Special Tools or Equipment
- ▢ Slow Cooker
- ▢ Aluminium Foil
Baked Potatoes
- ▢ 4 medium baking potatoes scrubbed and dried
- ▢ Cooking spray or olive oil
- ▢ Salt
Topping
- ▢ 1 1/2 pounds broccoli florets cut into bite-sized pieces
Cheese Sauce
- ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
- ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 1/2 cups milk
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 6 oz) sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Instructions
Baked Potatoes
- Poke potatoes 5-6 times each with a fork.
- Lay a sheet of foil down on the counter. Place a potato in the center and spray with cooking spray or drizzle in olive oil, turning to coat. Sprinkle with salt and close foil. Repeat with other potatoes. Place all potatoes in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours. They will be done in 8, but should be fine if cooked for up to 10 hours.
Broccoli
- Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add broccoli and cook until tender 3-5 minutes. Drain and cover to keep warm. Set aside.
Cheese Sauce
- In a medium pot, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook until flour is lightly golden, stirring constantly, about 1 minute.
- Slowly add in milk, whisking continuously so no lumps form. Continue to whisk and cook over medium heat until mixture is thick and bubbly, 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese, cayenne, salt and pepper.
- Slice open the tops of the potatoes and pile with broccoli. Top with cheese sauce.
Notes
Nutritional Information Recipe Adapted From: ToriAvey.com
Make-ahead Instructions: Sauce should be prepared just before serving, but cheese can be shredded, broccoli cut, and potatoes cooked up to two days in advance. Recipe For Two Instructions: Recipe halves cleanly. 1/2 of 1 tablespoon is 1 1/2 teaspoons. Freezer Notes: I don’t recommend this dish for freezing. Potatoes and cheesy sauces don’t hold up fantastically in the freezer.
These do-si-do cupcakes are intensely peanut buttery and topped with peanut butter buttercream.
How is everyone doing this fine Friday morning? Have any fun weekend plans? I have a ton of recipe testing to do so I will be up to my eyeballs in sugar. If you never hear from me again, it’s because I’ve slipped into a sugar coma and drifted away happily…
And speaking of sugar, today, we are moving on to Girl Scout cupcake recipe number 2. (To see the first cupcake in this series, check out my Tagalong Cupcakes post .) Today’s cupcake is inspired by my second-favorite Girl Scout cookies, Do-si-dos.
Do-si-dos are a great cookie because they’re all about the peanut butter, thin oatmeal cookies sandwiching a thick layer of sweet and creamy PB goodness, and what self-respecting peanut butter lover is going to turn that down?
My Do-si-do cupcakes are the least literal adaptation of the bunch. For one, I had a hard time adapting the oatmeal cookie into cupcake form, so since we’re all there for the peanut butter anyway, I went with a peanut butter base.
And visually, I thought about making cupcake sandwiches, but didn’t want the cupcake to have to be unwrapped to make the sandwich, and filling the center of the cupcakes with peanut butter was just unappealing looking, so I went with a straight up cupcake and rose-frosted top. I mean, it might as well be pretty, right?
Here’s the deal with these Do-si-do Cupcakes: just like with the cookies, peanut butter lovers only, need apply. Seriously, these things are so intensely peanutbuttery (that’s a word, right?) that if you don’t count peanut butter among the five essential food groups, just back away slowly.
Okay, now that it’s peanut butter lovers only here, guys, these are the best cupcakes ever!! They are soft and so dense. They’re almost like a the best homemade peanut butter cookie you ever ate, in cupcake form.
For the frosting, I adapted the peanut butter buttercream from the Tagalong cupcakes to make it a better fit. It’s whipped, making it a little lighter, because again, the cupcakes are so rich. I also substituted half brown sugar in the frosting to give it a slightly grittier mouth feel to replicate the crumbly texture of the cookies.
I dropped these off at my dad’s comic book shop to get rid of them (so I wouldn’t eat EVERY SINGLE ONE) and when he tasted one, he told me that I’d better hide because once the Girl Scouts knew I had their secret frosting recipe they were going to come after me. It’s such a dad thing to say, but also a pretty great endorsement of the cupcakes.
Stay tuned next week for the cupcake based off the second-best selling Girl Scout cookie, the one I’ve oft referred to as a crime against nature…
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- ▢ 1 cup ( 140 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 6 tablespoons ( 3oz ) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 3/4 cup ( 190 g) smooth peanut butter
- ▢ 1 cup ( 200 g) packed brown sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg room temperature
- ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ▢ 1/2 cup buttermilk
Whipped Peanut Butter Buttercream
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 1.5oz ) butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- ▢ 1/3 cup ( 66g ) packed brown sugar*
- ▢ 1/3 cup ( 40g ) powdered sugar
- ▢ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- ▢ 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Pre-heat your oven to 350°F and line cupcake pan with liners.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together over a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until mixture is visibly lightened in color, 2-3 minutes.
- Scrape down sides and bottom and add the egg and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- With the mixer on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk. Repeat, and finish with the final 1/3 of the flour. (Flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and the batter looks smooth.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom one final time to make sure everything is mixed.
- Fill cupcake tins about 4/5 of the way full. This should make exactly 12 cupcakes.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until cupcake tops are firm to the touch (cupcake tops will appear craggy and almost cookie-like). Cool cupcakes in their pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring.
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream. Beat at medium-high speed for 5-8 minutes until very light and fluffy.
- Frost cooled cupcakes. I used a large open star tip and piped on roses, starting my circle from the center of the cupcake.
Notes
Nutritional Information Cupcakes Adapted From: Daisy’s World Peanut Butter Buttercream Adapted From: Food.com
Small-batch Instructions: If halving, you can use a single egg yolk if you don’t want to deal with halving an egg. Half of 3/4 cup is 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons. For the frosting, just remember that 1/2 of 1 tablespoon is equal to 1 1/2 teaspoons. No preparation changes are needed.
Lightened Up Copycat Carmela’s Chicken
Ingredients
Caramelized Onions
- 2 large onions sliced into 3/4-inch half moons
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Chicken
- 1 pound (about 2 small) boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded thin
- Salt and pepper
Pasta and Sauce
- 12 ounces rigatoni pasta
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 8 ounces mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/3 cup sherry or Marsala* plus more for deglazing
- 1 1/2 cups half and half*
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
- Parsley optional, roughly chopped for garnish
Instructions
Caramelize Onions
- In a large, heavy-bottom pan, heat butter and oil. Add onions, stirring to coat in the oil and spread evenly over the pan. Cook, stirring every few minutes for 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle sugar over the top.
- Continue to cook, stirring and scraping every few minutes for 20 to 40 minutes, until onions are a deep amber color. Set aside.
Cook Your Chicken and Pasta
- In a medium pot, lightly salt and start your water for noodles. When water begins to boil, add pasta. Cook according to directions on the box, drain and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Spray pan with cooking spray and add chicken. Cook through, 5-8 minutes per side, until an instant-read thermometer reads at least 160°F.
- Transfer chicken to a cutting board. Deglaze the pan with a little of your wine and and pour back over the chicken. Tent with foil to keep warm and set aside.
Make the Sauce
- In the same pan, melt butter and add mushrooms. Cook mushrooms until they are just shy of your preferred level of doneness. (For me, about 5 minutes.)
- Add basil, caramelized onions, salt and pepper and cook for one minute.
- Add the wine and cook for another minute.
- Add the half and half and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced and thickened.
- While sauce is simmering, cut your chicken into strips or cubes, whatever you prefer.
- Add Parmesan cheese and chicken to the sauce and stir. Stir in noodles and heat until warmed through.
- Garnish with parsley, serve, and enjoy.
