Dinner: Rotisserie chicken with pepper jack pasta & spicy corn

I have a confession.

Sometimes after work, even though I sit at my desk a lot, my feet hurt as though I have walked on them all day long and I get a little moody with Matt on the way home.  On days like this when I reeeeeeeally don't want to do anything, I resort to very easy dinners such as this.

We stopped at HEB on the way home and picked up a mesquite Rotisserie chicken.  Surely you have had them at some time or another.
                                                        

(ah, Leslie Nielson, "..and don't call me Shirley.")

 

I especially love them because I make one of my favorites, Waldorf chicken salad, with whatever is left.

I'll include my recipe for that at the end.

This dinner comes together really, really quickly.  I had Matt trim the chicken for me while I got to dinner. 

Here you go:

SIDE NOTE:  I got the water boiling for the pasta first.

Spicy corn

1 C frozen corn

1/2 C water

1 TBS butter

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp Tony Chachere's

salt and pepper

You can really tailor the "spice" to however you prefer it.  Over med-high heat, warm corn and water.  Once corn comes to a light simmer, drain corn, placing corn back into hot pan, and add the rest of the ingredients.

Pepper jack pasta

2 handfuls whole wheat pasta (I used rigatoni)

1/4 pepper jack Velveeta cheese

1/4 C milk

1/4 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper

In a medium sauce pot, boil about 5 cups of water.  When water comes to a boil, salt it liberally and add pasta.  In a medium bowl, add cheese and milk and microwave for 1.5 minutes, stir and continue heating for about 45 seconds at a time until it becomes an even sauce.  Add garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook pasta until al dente and, using a slotted spoon, place pasta into bowl with sauce.

We each had a drumstick, and some thigh and breast meat, but reserved most of the breast meat for the chicken salad.  Matt helped me make a salad and I made my vinaigrette substituting balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar and adding dried dill.



We enjoyed our meal with iced raspberry tea with lemon and watch 'The Office', our favorite show.  Towards the end of our meal, I dizzled some of the pepper jack sauce on my chicken, it was really good!  I would also recommend blending the chicken with the pasta. 

Here is my Waldorf chicken salad recipe:

Waldorf chicken salad:

2 C chopped rotisserie chicken

1/2 C red grapes sliced length wise in half

2 green onions chopped

1/4 cup chopped pecans (you can also use walnuts, or exclude both)

1/2 cup dill relish

1/2 stalk celery diced

1/2 C mayonaise (we use the kind with olive oil)

1 TBS Worchestershire sauce

salt and pepper

1 tsp dried dill

Sometimes I like to serve this on toast, other times I love soft fresh bread.  It's even very delish on crackers. 

I can't wait for lunch today!

Bon appetit, Natalie