America's Most Wanted Recipes - Cheesecake Factory Chicken Fettuccine

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Sage Richardson

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to order at a restaurant is chicken fettuccine. One of those restaurants being The Cheesecake Factory, I decided to attempt the copycat recipe! This dish includes "fettuccine with chicken, fresh tomato, and a garlic-parmesan sauce" (Douglas, 53). This recipe features a "lighter sauce than you'd normally find in a fettuccine dish, as well as fresh flavors from the tomato and basil" (Douglas, 53). I chose this as my third recipe because it's a step forward from the side dish I made last time. As I did for my first cooking endeavor, I wanted to make a meal that could serve my whole family.

Mincing onion

Ingredients

Chopping garlic cloves

- 8 ounces fettuccine
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1/4 yellow onion, minced
- 6 medium mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 tomato diced
- 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 2 grilled boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Parmesan cheese for garnish

(Douglas, 53)

I didn't have any mushrooms or fresh basil with me when I created this recipe, so I improvised by skipping the mushrooms and substituting stir-in basil paste for the fresh basil. I also added dried basil for a more pronounced flavor. Also, using "precooked, sliced, and frozen chicken breasts" will save time (Douglas, 53).

Instructions

Sauce before mixing with pasta

- Add pasta to boiling salted water. As the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a 12-inch saute pan.
- Add the garlic to the pan and saute for 30 seconds, careful not to overcook the garlic.
- Add the red onion and mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the white wine and reduce by half, then add the chicken broth and reduce by half.
- Add the tomato, basil, and grilled chicken.
- Saute for 1 minute, then add the butter to the sauce.
- Mix with cooked, drained pasta. 
- Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

(Douglas, 53)

Final product!

I really enjoyed this recipe, it was very flavorful! Comparing this recipe to the restaurant dish, the sauce wasn't as thick. I had to add some corn starch to the saute pan to thicken the sauce a little more, and I added some parmesan cheese for taste. Those two alterations helped the dish a lot, and I recommend doing them if you run into the same thickening problem I did. Other than that though, the recipes were more similar than I thought they'd be! What is your go-to menu item at a restaurant you've never been to? Thanks for reading!

Douglas, Ron. America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants. 1st ed. New York N.Y.: Atria Paperback, 2009. Print.