CopyCats (Part One)

For Christmas I got a cookbook from my MIL  that is America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Families Favorite Restaurants (by Ron Douglas). It has been fun to look through it and get excited about making some of the yummy "eating out" food at home!!! I have tried two of the recipes and they are both great.

So first, New Year's Eve I made this pasta that I could tell by looking at the ingredients was right up my ally! I have never eaten at California Pizza Kitchen, which is where this one is from, so I don't know if it tastes like the original or not, but we enjoyed it either way!

California Pizza Kitchen's Chicken-Tequila Fettuccine

1 lb. fesh or dried spinach fettucine

1/3 plus some to garnish fresh chopped cilantro
2 Tbs. minced fresh garlic
2 Tbs. minced jalapeno pepper (seeds and veins removed)
3 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 Tbs. gold tequila
2 Tbs. lime juice
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 1/4 lb. chicken breasts, diced
1/4 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 each medium red, yellow, and green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Cook the cilantro, garlic, and jalapeno in 2 Tbs. of the butter over medium heat for 4-5 min. (I didn't use quite as much garlic and jalapeno as the recipe called for). Add the stock, tequila, and lime juice. Bring toa boil and cook until reduced to pastelike consistency; set aside.

Pour soy sauce over diced chicken and let set alteast 5 minutes.
Boil water and cook pasta according to directions.

Meanwhile, cook onion and peppers in remaining tablespoon of butter, until limp. Then add chicken, toss, and add reserved tequila lime paste. Add the cream. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until chicken is cooked through.

Drain cooked pasta and toss with the sauce. Garnish with extra cilantro.

And you know what else I loved about this recipe??? Grab yourself some tomatoes while your at the store and use all your leftover veggies from this recipe to make a fabulous homemade salsa:

Take your tomatoes, onion, lime juice, jalapeno, pepper (I chose the yellow pepper only) cilantro, some salt and cumin, a little bit of extra tomato juice to make it a little runnier- throw them all in the food processor-

Twirl that bad boy around a little and voila-

Yummy!