How to Add More Flavour to Your One Pot Meals and Save Time
This one pot chicken pasta dish is the perfect weeknight dinner as it is quick, easy and delicious. It is the perfect comfort food. You can add some mushrooms and/or spinach or just serve it with a side salad.
Hello there! It’s been two weeks again since my last post and I apologise about that. On Easter Sunday my stove broke and it has not worked since. Talk about great timing. I guess it could be worse if my stovetop were the only cooking equipment I had. You cannot make every meal with an instant pot and whoever tells you that you can is a filthy liar. Same goes for a Thermomix or whatever alternative. They all have their purpose but they cannot truly replace browning something on a stove. Can you tell that I miss my stove? The warranty also lapsed just six months ago which makes this especially frustrating. My advice would be to have an alternative on hand so you can still cook something like a hot plate or gas cooker. Handyman are busy people with a ton of work and you might wait a while for them to come around to fix your things.
What Pot is Best?
Anyway, this Cajun one pot pasta you can obviously make in just one pot. My pot of choice is usually a non-stick high-walled sauté pan because it has the most surface for browning meat and aromatics. This way you can build for flavour in less time An instant pot also works but it might take longer to build more flavour as they don’t get as hot as a pot on the stove will. If you don’t believe me take a thermometer to it. Mine is supposed to get to 160°C and it measured at least 20 degrees lower. Do you want to cook something quick and easy in double the amount of time use an instant pot. You can make do if necessary though.
Time Saving and Flavour Building Tips for One-Pot Meals
One-pot pastas are usually quick to throw together but there are a few ways you can streamline the process for yourself. As much as it is great to make a quick meal there are some things you should spend more time on because you still want it to taste good.
- prepare your protein such as chicken breast, pork or beef when you have the time (cut it to size, marinate -> also improves flavour flavour)
- use a micro chopper for your aromatics like a mirepoix or sofrito or other small vegetables you are using mainly for flavour, this way they also cook much faster. Chop other vegetables as uniformly as possible by hand so you get an even cook on them
- make sure to sauté your aromatics (such as onions, garlic, mirepoix, tomato paste) and spices for more depth of flavour
- add salt whilst sautéeing veggies to quickly release the excess water
- use a lid to cook larger vegetables quicker
- brown your protein and aromatics on medium high to high and add some hot water to scrape the bottom of the pot and keep everything from burning
- Use faster boiling pasta when making a one pot pasta and just about cover it with hot water or whatever stock of choice you have on hand. You can always top it up as necessary but cannot take excess water out (which will lead to overboiled, muchy pasta)
- Season as you go and season to taste. Taste is subjective and what you cook needs to taste good for you and your family. Any seasoning measurement in a recipe is merely a guideline which you need to adjust for yourself. We all have different palates. We have different seasoning blends, which may have more salt, less salt or more chili, less chili. Add seasoning in stages and give the salt time to disolve properly. If you feel like there is something missing at the end you could add a little MSG (for example in: Worcestersauce, Maggie seasoning, soy sauce) or a little bit of acid as necessary.
One Pot Cajun Chicken Pasta
Ingredients:
- 200-400 gr cubed chicken
- 1-3 tsp Cajun seasoning
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tbl vegetable oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, cubed
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms (or canned, optional)
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp of instant stock (vegetable or chicken)
- 1 tbl tomato paste
- 320-400 gr pasta of choice, e..g tagliatelle
- 2-3 hands of fresh spinach (optional)
- parsley
- pickled chilies for garnish (optional)
Instructions:
1. Season the chicken with 1-2 tsp of Cajun seasoning, salt and pepper. Let it sit as you prepare the the vegetables. This can be done a day before but it’s not necessary.
2. Prepare your vegetables according to the instuctions above. To save time you can chop the onions, bell pepper and garlic in a micro chopper or pulse in a food processor.
3. Let a high walled sauté pan come to medium high to high temperature and add the oil.
4. Brown the chicken until golden.
5. Add the onions and bell pepper, season with a little salt and sauté until the onions are translucent and the bell peppers have some colour. Should anything begin to stick to the bottom of the pot add a splash of water and scrape it off with a silicone spatula (when using non-stick).
6. Add the mushrooms and sauté them until they have released most of their moisture and have some colour. If you dont like mushrooms skip this step.
7. Add the garlic, tomato paste and more Cajun season and roast them for a minute or two.
8. Add the pasta of choice and just about cover it with vegetable or chicken stock. Taste the broth and add more seasoning if necessary. Let it cook with the lid on for about five minutes. then remove the lid and keep cooking it until the pasta is done. If the pasta isn’t fully cooked or too al dente, add another splash of water until done. The pasta will absorb any excess liqiuid but you can also thicken it with cornstarch slurry for a saucier pasta
9. If you want to add some spinach do that when the pasta is nearly finished and mix them under.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper, Add some parsley and serve.
Well, there you have a super easy one pot pasta recipe. Now that I lokk at the recipe it looks a little long, but that is just because you have options. If you don’t have mushrooms but you have some spinach you can add that instead. You can also skip the extra vegetables in the pasta and serve a mixed salad on the side. It’s totally up to what you want to do. You can even use shrimp instead of chicken. In my head that sounds odd but Cajun shrimp pasta is very popular online. I may give it go one day because I’m weirdly curious. How do you feel about Cajun shrimp?Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this recipe and found some helpful tips to improve your one pot meals. Have a great week!
Roguish Recipe Kitchen 