As promised on Twitter, here’s the dish I made last night. Audra and I like it a lot, but it might not be for everybody.
Chipotle Mushroom Farfalle w/Chicken
Ingredients
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[li]8 oz dried farfalle pasta[/li][li]16 oz medium-sized white button mushrooms, thickly-sliced[/li][li]1 boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded to 1/4" thickness[/li][li]3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro[/li][li]2 chipotle peppers packed in adobo sauce, seeded and finely chopped[/li][li]1 cup dry-(ish) white wine[/li][li]1 cup chicken stock[/li][li]2 tablespoons chicken demi-glace concentrate[/li][li]1 cup heavy cream[/li][li]1 large red bell pepper, diced[/li][li]1 shallot, roughly chopped[/li][li]1 tablespoon butter[/li][li]3 tablespoons olive oil[/li][li]Pinch freshly-grated nutmeg[/li][li]Salt and freshly-ground white and black pepper to taste[/li][/ul]
Directions
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[li]Boil water for pasta.[/li][li]Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees F.[/li][li]Add demi-glace concentrate to chicken stock and warm in microwave for about one minute. Mix well with whisk.[/li][li]Add butter to a large pan over medium-high heat. When the butter melts, tilt pan to spread it. Once the butter is brown and fragrant, add olive oil and tilt pan again to mix. Lightly salt/pepper one side of the chicken breast and place this side down in the pan. Lightly salt/pepper the top side of the chicken. Sauté chicken until cooked through and lightly browned.[/li][li]Remove chicken to an oven-safe plate and place in oven to keep warm.[/li][li]Add bell pepper and shallot to the fat remaining in pan and reduce heat to medium. Sauté until bell pepper begins to soften.[/li][li]Add mushrooms to pan. Sauté until mushrooms begin to give up their moisture.[/li][li]Deglaze pan with white wine. Add chipotle peppers and cilantro. Stir to incorporate. Raise heat to medium-high and reduce wine to about 1/2 cup.[/li][li]Add large pinch salt and farfalle to boiling water. Set timer for desired doneness and drain when done.[/li][li]While wine reduces, remove chicken from oven and dice (about 3/4"). (Or, if you like you can just slice across the grain and serve on top of the pasta during plating. It’s up to you.)[/li][li]Add stock/demi-glace mixture, cream, and chicken. Stir.[/li][li]Raise heat to high and reduce to desired thickness.[/li][li]Remove from heat and let stand about five minutes. Add salt, pepper, and tiny amount of nutmeg to taste.[/li][li]Add pasta to pan and mix well.[/li][/ol]
Tips/Techniques:
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[li]Prep everything first – it seems like it takes longer, but it really doesn’t and you’re way more likely not to forget something.[/li][li]The brand of dried farfalle I buy takes 12 minutes to cook, so I generally dunk it around the time I add the cream. But you should do whatever works for you. Your goal is for the pasta to come out about five minutes before the sauce.[/li][li]I use a lot of chipotle because Audra and I love spicy food. You can reduce this if you like. The adobo carries the spiciness quite a bit, so if you’re reducing the spiciness you can wipe a bit off. Don’t rinse them, though. And if you’re looking for the chipotle in the store, try the international isle (or wherever they sell mexican food ingredients). If I can find 'em at my local Albertsons, they’re probably everywhere.[/li][li]If you hate chipotle, you can remove it altogether along with the bell pepper, chop the shallot more finely, and replace the white wine with 3/4 cup of sherry and you’ve got a nice sherried mushroom cream sauce. (We do this, too.) Throw in some seeded diced tomatoes and a vegetable (like broccoli or peas) at the same time you add the pasta and you’ve got a pretty cool dish.[/li][li]You can buy demi-glace concentrate at high-end grocery stores. I like the stuff they sell at Williams Sonoma. It’s all expensive, BTW, but a little-bitty $30 jar will make many meals. You can omit this if you really need to, but the sauce won’t thicken as well and you’ll miss a whole layer of flavor.[/li][li]I use a sort of grassy sauvignon blanc, but that’s mainly because I’m not a fan of drinking chardonnay. (Yeah, I’m weird.) Chardonnay would work very well in this as the white wine is intended to add a little pungent twist. You can use whatever you like or have as long as a) it’s not sweet (forget the Riesling) and b) you’re willing to drink it.[/li][li]Watch the thickness of the sauce. I go a little past “coats the back of a spoon,” but this is entirely up to your taste. Too thick and it won’t cover all the pasta. Too thin and it drips off.[/li][li]I garnish with freshly-grated parmesan, pepper, a little chopped cilantro, and sometimes a cilantro sprig. If you like the slight saltiness of the parmesan a lot you can mix a tiny bit into the pasta before you serve as well. (Remember you’ll probably add less salt, so add the parmesan before you taste for final seasoning.)[/li][/ul]
Anyway, there it is, with probably way more detail than anyone cares to read. But hey – I’m a food geek, if still a pretty new/amateur food geek. 
