Chicken Penne Alfredo

This post will focus primarily on how to make a homemade alfredo sauce for those of you who may not know how. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it and know how things are supposed to look and when to add certain ingredients. I tried to take pictures as I was going along which I will show you so you can get a visual however as I'm right handed it's hard to stir and take pictures with your left at the same time, so forgive me if the pictures are a little blurry. Also, you only need three main ingredients: butter, flour, and milk.

So, the way you want to start is by melting some butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. I would say about 1/4 cup. While that is melting get some flour (all purpose is fine) and have it at the ready. Once the butter is completely melted, start adding flour. We're making a roux! Add little bits of flour at a time and stir constantly as you don't want the flour to burn. Keep adding flour until your roux looks approximately like this...

Now you can start adding your milk/cream. I use milk as it's a little less fattening than using cream but cream also makes it that much more rich. So go for whatever you feel like. Pour in a little bit of milk (caution: the roux will get thick and stiff at first, keep stirring!!) and add enough milk until you can properly stir (I would say about a 1/2-3/4 cup of milk to start).

See how it's a little bit lumpy? That's what you're looking for at first.
Keep stirring and the sauce will start to get thick again, then add more milk.

These last two pictures were taken only a couple of minutes apart. I added more milk after the first picture was taken and kept stirring and the Alfredo sauce started to take shape.
Once you've added enough milk that your sauce is thick but still creamy you can start adding spices if you wish. If you're a Mennonite like me, basically add salt and pepper and you've got yourself a shmohntfat (somebody please correct me on my spelling of that word!). If you don't feel like being a Mennonite, add things like Parmesan Cheese, oregano, rosemary, Italian parsley etc (and obviously salt and pepper, that's a must).
This sauce is a little bit of a baby and needs attention basically at all times until you're up to this point. So if you feel up to it start making your pasta and whatever else you want, otherwise just wait until the sauce is done and keep it on low heat, remembering to stir periodically to check on the thickness. If it starts getting too thick just add a little bit more milk. If you feel it's too thin, just add a little grated Parmesan cheese, that works wonders for thickening up a sauce.
I cooked up a couple chicken breasts and I had some penne in my cupboard (I suppose you would "normally" see fettucine in this dish, but really, make whatever kind of pasta you want).

And there ya go. I would say this could definitely serve four people easily. I made it for my husband and I and we had leftovers for a few days.

So just for fair warning, I have been trying to post a bunch now in the off time between semesters however as of next week I may be posting even less than I usually do. I'm taking my last two courses for my B.A. (!!!!!!!!!!) so that will keep this girl pretty busy. I'll try and come back when I can and just know that I haven't forgotten about you, my faithful readers!

xoxo

-A