Paleo Creamy Buffalo Chicken "Pasta"

    It's finally gotten to be really wintery in Ontario!!! It was so warm and spring-ish through our Christmas holidays in Brantford, but as we drive home the skies were getting grey and blustery and the temperature began to drop. We got home, got the van un-packed, and it started to snow!

    The snow makes me want to (and need to in our old house!) wear 2 sweaters, cozy socks and slippers and eat warm, comforting food!

   In the past I was never a huge pasta eater. I enjoyed it once in a while, but it was never a food crutch for me (I had many others!). But as the fall settled in, I was feeling the need to change up our "usual" dinners, and comfort foods came to mind. COMFORT FOODS!!! I'm not 100% sure why I did that, but I said it out loud while typing it....I also said it like Cookie Monster....oh boy, I'm the captain of the crazy team today! 

    Back to warm and cosy foods.....soups and stews, casseroles and pasta, all warm, made mostly in one pan or dish, and with leftovers for packing into lunches. However, my kids (except the youngest) hate soup, they'll eat stew, but usually with some complaining and suspicious looks at what might be hiding in the dish. They enjoy casseroles, but they're not my husbands favourite.....so, that leaves me with pasta as a good family-approved comfort meal! Side note, I know it sounds like my kids are fussy (and they sure can be!), but they mostly don't like those foods because we hardly ever have them and new foods can be scary (apparently!)! Hahaha, bunch of brats...my husband included! : )  

​    Anyway, this recipe was approved by all (with a tiny modification for the kids--I'll give that to you in the method), and was so, so soooo good! It's creamy, a little spicy, and totally satisfying! I've made this using butternut squash noodles, sweet potato noodles, and spaghetti squash, but zucchini noodles could also be used. Oh, and if you're not paleo, feel free to use gluten-free pasta, or regular pasta!       

​Paleo Creamy Buffalo Chicken "Pasta"
Adapted from Brittany Angell


Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, ghee or butter
• 2 Chicken breasts (about 1 lb), cut into 1 1/2-2 inch pieces
• 1 large onion, cut into squares, strips, whatever you want!
• 1 Tbsp tapioca or arrowroot starch 
• 1 Can full fat coconut milk
• 1/4 Cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• Pinch of salt & pepper
• "Pasta"- About 4 Cups per adult, 1-3 cups per child

***I prefer to use roasted butternut squash noodles (using THIS spiralizer--it' will spiralize butternut squash without it needing too be soften at all first!), but you can also use sweet potato, or zucchini noodles. If you don't own a spiralizer you can just use roasted spaghetti squash. The amount you need depends on who's eating! I can eat an entire large spiralized butternut squash to myself!  Opt for too much than too little though. Leftovers are better than not having enough. For the different cooking methods, see the instructions below!***


Method: 

***Start by prepping your noodle***See below the sauce recipe for the how-to! 

1. Warm a large skillet or pot over low/medium heat and add oil (or ghee or butter) into the pan to melt
2. Once the oil is melted and the pan hot, cook the chicken in small batches, setting aside the cooked chicken onto a plate as you continue cooking all the meat
3. Once the meat is finished and set aside, add the onions into the pan, and begin to brown
4. Now add the tapioca  and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the nice brown bits off and get the starch covering the onions 
5. Add the can of coconut cream and the hot sauce, and stir to combine and thicken. Remove from heat (unless you're noodles are nearly done, then just go to the next step)
6. Once you're noodles are almost ready, add the chicken back into the sauce and begin to warm back up
7. Once the noodles are ready you can either add them right into the sauce and gently toss to coat, or you can divide the noodles into bowls and top with the sauce (to make a little less spicy for kids, simply spoon out a portion of the sauce and water down using hot water, broth, or milk before putting on top of their noodles) 
8. Top with a pinch of cayenne pepper if you wish, or parmesan cheese (if you eat dairy)-I often top mine with nutritional yeast 

My butternut squash noodles!

​The Noodles!

Butternut Squash- Preheat oven to 400- Cut the bulbous end of the squash off and set aside (you can scoop the seeds out to roast and snack on, and you can also roast that little portion to use in other recipes), then cut the top off the squash, and peel (see how to do this here) I use Blade D with my Inspiralizer for spaghetti noodles. Then I place them as evenly as possible onto 2 baking sheets and drizzle with olive oil. When you're almost done making the sauce, place baking sheets into hot oven to roast for 5 minutes, then take out, toss very slightly and gently, and place pans back into oven for 5 more minutes, switching which level the pan was on for the first 5 minutes.  
Sweet Potato- Spiralize into spaghetti noodles, and warm a large skillet over medium heat. Drizzle olive oil into the pan and place noodles into pan, and cook/saute until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Don't over cook them!  
Zucchini- Same instructions as for the sweet potato noodles, only cook on a lower temperature, and for up to 15 minutes. They are already soft, but just need to be warmed up and have some of the water evaporate. Don't overcook them!
Spaghetti Squash- Preheat oven to 400- The typical way to roast a spaghetti squash is to cut it in half lengthwise and roast. But that's a difficult way to cut a thick and strong spaghetti squash! The easiest way to roast a spaghetti squash is THIS way. Cut the squash into rings, place onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes, flipping them over halfway through cooking. You'll end up with nice, long strands of squash noodles, it's a lot easier to get the noodles out, and they aren't as wet as spaghetti squash noodles that are roasted when simple cut in half. 

Making the fabulous sauce!

     Making the sauce is so simple! Two thumbs up!  : )  
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     So many photos today!!!! : )  

    This meal is so tasty though, I needed to (apparently) include every photo I took! Haha, sorry! Well, ok, I really took about 40 more photos than this, so it could have been worse!

   I hope everyone had a good week! We did at the Van Londersele house! It was my youngest daughters birthday yesterday, and Adam brought a bouquet of flowers home for her and you would have thought she won an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony award all at once!! She was so thrilled she could hardly contain it! What a dear. This week also saw temperatures so low that made my nostril hairs freeze (yum), as well as the horses nostril hairs, and the dog had an icicle beard when she got inside! It also required me to fill our outdoor wood boiler 4 times a day! Sheesh! I wore a lot of layers this week, a lot of layers indeed! But, it's all part of the Canadian home that I love, so I take it in stride, knowing that we have 4 seasons that are beautiful and terrible each in their own way! 

   So, this weekend we have the first round of auditions for the new musical "The Music Man" with The Belleville Theatre Guild. I'm pretty excited to get started on this new project! 

​   Have a lovely weekend all you good people! Oh, and share with me some of your favourite comfort foods, please and thank-you! : )

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