This pareve creamy pasta and chicken dish will be the family-friendly main for special occasions.
Back when Leah and I were working on Secret Restaurant Recipes, there was one particular recipe that we were told we “have to get.”
It was a pareve Chicken Alfredo dish from a popular fleishig Los Angeles Italian restaurant. We were told it was super creamy and no one could figure out just how they managed to make it pareve. This was already almost a decade ago (!) and I suppose we were a bit less culinarily enlightened.
We tried, we tried. We thought it would have made a great addition to the cookbook. But, while most restaurants were very forthcoming and happy to work with us, this one was not. (It is no longer open.)
Fast forward 10 years and, when preparing my Sukkot menu last year, I remembered the dish–and I knew by now that I could use cashews to make a creamy, parve dairy-like sauce.
I thought it would be a perfect addition to the menu–it’s always a challenge to include something that’s kid-friendly amongst all the fancier foods.
First, I’ll tell you that I would never, ever make this on a weeknight (unless you have a family member with dairy allergies/sensitivities, then it’s a great idea!). I serve enough pasta on dairy nights, we certainly don’t need creamy pasta on meat nights.
But when it’s Yom Tov, and there’s no dairy in sight for a while, it’s something that’s surprising and unexpected and a real treat.
And while I originally thought this would be the “kids” dish (I served one batch with the chicken and mushrooms, and one batch with just the pasta and sauce), everyone wanted!
Yup. I had made short ribs, veal, and even duck…and it was the pasta that was finished all the way to the last noodle.
The mushrooms and chicken are sautéed in a pan, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook the mushrooms, then the chicken. Slice the chicken into strips once done. Leah says that chicken is tastier when sliced across the grain, like meat. The short way rather than the long way. I never knew that.
Now let’s make this sauce.
First, grind up your cashews.
They should be the consistency of a fine powder/sand.
Then sauté the onion and garlic.
Add chicken stock and honey and bring to a boil. Then, slowly whisk in the cashew powder, stirring constantly.
You’ll see the sauce start to become creamy as the cashews blend in.
The sauce needs to be blended again until smooth. If you have a high quality blender (most of our full sized blenders are used for dairy), great. Otherwise, an immersion blender works great. You can use a food processor or the mini chopper you used to blend the cashews–it will work, but it won’t be as smooth and creamy.
Make Ahead Instructions: The sauce can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for a few days. You can sauté the mushrooms and chicken the day before, earlier in the day, or fresh. You can rewarm everything by stirring it together in a pan. I don’t like to be busy with pots when I’m serving company, so I’m more likely to warm the components separately in small covered tins in the oven (just until warmed through–don’t let anything get dry). Then, toss it all together.
Chicken Alfredo with Pareve Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp oil
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- ¾ lb thin chicken cutlets
- salt and pepper, for sprinkling
- 1 lb fettuccine, prepared according to package instructions
Sauce:
- 1 cup cashews
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ large sweet onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 ½ cups chicken stock
- 1 tbsp honey
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Prepare the mushrooms and chicken. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium low heat. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, and cook until soft and brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add additional oil to the pan if needed. Add chicken and cook until cooked through on each side, 4-5 minutes. Slice.
- Prepare the sauce. Grind cashews to a fine powder in a mini chopper or food processor. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat (you can use the same pan again if preparing everything at the same time). Add onion and garlic and sauté until onion is very soft but not golden, 8 minutes. Add chicken stock and honey and bring to a boil. Whisk in cashew powder, a little at a time, stirring vigorously. Season with salt. Remove from heat.
- Let cool for just a few minutes and blend in a blender, food processor, or using an immersion blender. You will get a smoother result in a high quality blender, but an immersion blender works great too. A food processor/mini chopper works as well but it won’t be as smooth.
- To serve, combine pasta, mushrooms, chicken, and sauce.
Notes
|