Discovery Mexican Chicken Pasta

Time to celebrate a day that I love from afar. Mexico's Cinco De Mayo Spanish “Fifth of May” national holiday in Mexico in honour of a military victory in 1862 over the French forces of Napoleon III.

Discovery the well known Mexican food brand first alerted me to this day two years ago, with foods to try and events to visit. They did not have to try too hard back then as I love spicy Mexican recipes.

 I decided to make a recipe I have been toying with for a while, it mixes Italian and Mexican nicely,  instead of Spaghetti Carbonara, think Fajita Chicken Carbonara.

Discovery sent me the new Garlicand Herb Soured Cream, along with a Fajita kit and a Cajun Cooking sauce  the mission was to review  the products  I am also entering a competiton to come up with a recipe using these and I decided on two ofthe products, the new and the fajita spice mix.
Scroll down if you like the look of the top photo.

I cooked the Cajun sauce dish first, as it is so easy to make, plus it was a chance to try the new sour cream. Chris opted for a jacket potato, I went with rice.

The Cajun chicken is superb, bags of flavour lots of sauce and soft peppers,onions and tomatoes to give depth. 

The Fajita kit is a fabulous standby to have in the cupboard, its so easy to whip up a meal midweek that seems like a treat and that I have gone to real effort, when I have actually had hardly anything to do.


Finally as I mentioned at the beginning,  I decided to use the Discovery Garlic and Herb Soured Cream as a cooking ingredient, not really knowing if it would work, curdle or change the taste I imagined it to have.

It worked beautifully, I also used a fresh sour cream to get the consistency and amount of sauce I needed for  four people, but I will be adding more of the Discovery cream again.

I adore rice,could eat it every day, but the whole family prefer pasta, so this is a Mexican  Chicken Pasta, sorry to any purists out there. I do tend to mix things up a bit and I think it worked.   
The pasta was a fresh bag from Sainsbury's a new one to me, Taglioline sort of skinny tagliatelle

I used another sachet of Discovery Fajita mix, I always have them in my spice basket, they are very versatile, we love them on potato wedges, in rice, as a marinade on pork for the slow cooker.

I used a  medium strength and I used it three ways, to marinade the chicken, to sprinkle over the cooking vegetables and  to flavour  the creamy sauce. 


Feel free to add less, use a milder or hotter strength, it was an invention so reinventing is permissible. I think adding it in to all three components made the finished dish just have a lovely background of spice without too much spice heat.


My tip when cooking try to use  a heavy cast iron pan, use it, it makes the chicken blacken up fast and nicely without having a ruined pan. I also will chop my chicken up smaller next time to make it easier to mingle through the pasta

500g chicken breast small cubes

1 packet Discovery Fajita Seasoning Mix (Medium)

50g tablespoons butter/marg

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1green pepper thinly sliced strips

1 red pepper thinly sliced strips

1  red onion, sliced

3 cloves Garlic, minced

4 fresh plum tomatoes finely diced

A small glass of white wine

400ml chicken stock

Small pot of sour cream
1-2  tablespoons Discovery Herb and Garlic Soured Cream
Pepper to finish.
 500g Fresh Taglioline or similar.


Method

Marinate the chicken in about half the Discovery Fajita Mix, leave for at least 30 minutes.

Heat up half the butter and olive oil until sizzling, add the chicken in a single layer and allow to cook, for 2 minutes, don't be tempted to turn over until the chicken is golden and blackened in small areas,  after turning,fry for about 2-3 mins. Repeat if any chicken left. Place on a large plate

Add the remaining butter and oil to the same pan and add the peppers, onions and garlic. Sprinkle over half the remaining Discovery Fajita mix. Fry on high heat for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally to keep  from sticking. 

Add the diced tomatoes and stir for about a minute. Remove from the pan and set aside with the chicken.

Now to get all those lovely blackened bits  into the sauce, so keep the heat up high on the pan, and add the wine and stock, stirring and scraping the pan. This needs to bubble away for a good few minutes to reduce down.


Lower the heat and remove from the heat for a minute, while you pop on the pasta in a large pan to cook, it should be slightly undercooked.

Add the pot of sour cream and the Discovery Garlic and Herb into the stock and stir vigorously to keep from curling. Don't worry too much as it will be all mixed in with the pasta and chicken.

Sprinkle in the remaining Fajita mix and stir in. The sauce will thicken slightly. 

Now add the chicken ,vegetables and juices left and cook on a low heat to warm through, if you cut the chicken small enough its about a minute, I just checked the biggest pies to ensure they were cooked thoroughly, refrain from eating at this point,it smells devine! 

Finally stir the pasta through, mixing thoroughly and serve.

Serve with my easy guacamole recipe

http://www.discoveryfoods.co.uk/