That's what cheese said...

Cacio e Pepe with Diced Chicken & Asparagus

So I'm trying something new, as these aren't my recipes, I haven't been listing the actual recipe, but some of you have asked and I've sent links. From now on if I can I'm hyperlinking to the recipe from the cover image. I like this whole pun for a title thing. I'm having fun with it. Hope y'all don't mind.

From this box I had chicken, beef, and fish recipes. Normally I would go with the fish first, but in looking at all of my ingredients, the asparagus looked like it might go bad if I didn't use it soon. I was also ready to fight all the males over eating because they all claim to hate asparagus. I chose this for a night that I knew I could get the meal done early enough to endure a dinner battle of epic proportions.

The Gobble cards are a bit smaller than HelloFresh, MarleySpoon, or BlueApron. They feel a little more cluttered and it combined things into a step that I probably would have made into an additional step but nothing horrible. They do make warnings like adjust your cooking times and watch out for oil splatter which is nice for people using the service to learn how to cook. I do have slight issue with the fact that they put the card in the plastic bag with the food, it gets wrinkled and I feel like it is excessive to send a card for each 2 person set of food. One of the things I like about other options is they use one card for the 2 and the 4 person servings and they tell you the amount to use of an ingredient based on the portion size...this comes in to play in this recipe for sure.

On of the things I did like was the inclusion of fresh vs dried pasta. I prefer it and I like when the services send fresh. Now I'm not saying I knew what Cacio e Pepe was before this, but I did look it up with the expectation I would need to talk about it some for this blog. I was disappointed there wasn't more cheese or fresh cheese to grate. It takes such a small amount of time to grate a little block of parmesan, I think it would elevate the recipe rather than just sending "Italian cheese blend".

First step was slice asparagus, with a decent picture of the expected size and type of slice. Then I read to the next step and it says drain diced chicken breast. Boo. I like just the whole chicken breast. I can pound it thinner if needed, and I can get a nice Maillard reaction and it makes for better fond in the pan for sauces. Also cooking diced chicken is never going to get a good browning over medium heat. With the whole breast, you get better Maillard, better fond, and you can let it rest and slice for a very pretty presentation. Gatherer is a chicken snob, she cooks it very frequently (shit be cheap yo). After side eyeing the chacken and moving on with minimal irritation, I added the veggies to the pan. Meanwhile the pasta is doing its thing over in my salted water and boiling for exactly 5 minutes because the recipe said boil for 4-6min. Now you know what my brain does when it sees a range.

The next step is to reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain the rest. Huh. Well I have a 4 person recipe so do I do a cup? Or is that too much water for the sauce? Side note if you are not building your pasta sauces with your salted pasta water you are doing it wrong, it really makes a difference. I did what I always do and I pour off a pyrex measuring cup full of pasta water because I know if I have too much then I'm good but once the water is down the drain it ain't coming back. I'm fairly good at eyeing a sauce and knowing about how much it can reduce or thicken upon cooling but I feel for someone new or uncomfortable with cooking trying to guess mid process, especially because this one comes together fast. The final step prior to plating is adding the water and garlic parmesan butter to the pan with the veggies and chacken. Everything is supposed to melty and merge, then you add the pasta and cheese. My suggestion would be to cook chicken remove from pan to rest. cook veggies in same pan, remove from pan and reserve for plating. make the sauce without the cheese blend, add the pasta, and mix in some of the cheese. To plate I would add the pasta, top with veggies including arugula, then slice the chacken. To finish the plate season with more cheese blend, and cracked pepper (the pepe is pepper I think, so cracked pepper should be a big star). The reason I say add veggies in plating is that it is really hard to chase down peas and bite size asparagus bits in a large spaghetti dish. Here is my before plating picture.

Believe it or not, that chicken was almost over done, bordering on dry. The cover photo shows my final plating. It was a decent dish but I didn't get the cheese and pepper much which is what the Cacio e Pepe translates as. I actually called it buttery noodles with chicken and veggies for the Natives, which seemed to work. They ate it, did not complain and no one even noticed the asparagus. That's a decent win. I do like that as an okay home chef, I can think of a bunch of ways to modify this to build the flavors and elevate it or just make it better. But you all know if the whole family eats, I'm not giving it anything less than...

Rated 4 sweet teas

It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, everyone at it. Honestly...I don't really ask for much more than that. Also it has added a new edible vegetable and that alone makes it worth the try. It is fairly easy to find herbed butter in my area so there aren't any crazy ingredients I couldn't pull on my own so this is an easy remake and would be super simple for company.