Carrot and Kale Chicken Alfredo

Everybody loves a good Alfredo sauce.  My biggest issue with Alfredo is the calorie count--it's essentially a pile of warm butter, cream, and Parmesan cheese.  But oh my, it is so good!

I made a Chicken Alfredo recipe once before, using a can of cheese sauce for the base.  This time, I wanted to make Alfredo sauce from scratch, but took a few liberties to make it ever so slightly better for me.  I swapped out some of the heavy cream for whole milk, and added in some fresh kale and finely grated carrots.  Sneaky.



Kale is ridiculously good for you, and I am new to cooking with it (get ready for kale chips soon!), so after trying some raw I knew the flavor wasn't overwhelming and thought it would make a great add-in for some pasta sauce.

First things first: I lightly seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, then cooked them for about 7 minutes on each side in a nonstick skillet sprayed with olive oil.

I sliced the cooked chicken up into cubes so it would be easy to mix into the sauce, then set it aside.

I grated up a carrot next until I ended up with about 1/4 cup.

I also chopped up a kale leaf to give me about 1/4 cup of sliced kale leaves.

I melted some butter in a nonstick skillet, then added in the minced garlic and flour.  I cooked it for a few minutes, stirring frequently,until the flour browned slightly.

Once the flour was slightly browned, I stirred in the milk and heavy cream, and added in the kale and shredded carrots.  At this point I also added salt, pepper, and a little dash of cayenne pepper.

Finally, I stirred in the Parmesan cheese to finish off the sauce.

I mixed in the chicken, and served the finished sauce over the fettuccine noodles.

Yum!  You know what the best part of this one was?  You COULDN'T EVEN TELL there was kale or carrot in there.  Other than the visual, the flavor was completely unaffected by the additions but I got the bonus of some extra vitamins in the mix.  The sauce was thick and creamy even with the change of using milk in place of part of the cream.  There is a major decrease in fat with this change, and when you can still end up with a flavorful alfredo sauce out of the deal it is definitely a change worth trying.

Carrot and Kale Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 box fettuccine (8 ounces)

For the alfredo sauce:
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup water
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup chopped kale
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions:
Cook chicken in nonstick skillet over medium heat until cooked throughout, about 7 minutes on each side.  Remove from skillet and wipe out pan with a damp paper towel.  Slice chicken into cubes as and set aside.  Boil pasta in another pan and cook according to package directions.  Melt butter in the skillet and add garlic.  Whisk in flour and heat to bubbling, cooking until slightly browned while stirring frequently.  Add in carrots and kale and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in milk, heavy cream, water, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.  Simmer for 3-4 minutes, then stir in cheese.  Add chicken back to the pan and continue cooking on low for 5 minutes.