Back in the days when we first moved to St. Louis (late 90’s) we used to eat at Houlihan’s a lot. They had this dish that Matthew got, he thinks it was called Tuscan Lemon Chicken. It was a breaded chicken breast and a lemony alfredo sauce. They don’t have that particular dish anymore so he requested that I try to replicate it. I had never made alfredo sauce before and I did learn a few things.
First, I made the chicken from this recipe. Then I started two sauces, the lemon garlic sauce from the same recipe as the chicken and the alfredo sauce.
The alfredo sauce ingredients
- 1 pint half & half
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
The procedure
- Heat half and half and butter over medium-low heat and whisk to combine once the butter has melted
- raise the heat to medium-high and whisk in the cheese
That is basically how you make alfredo sauce, now I make it into lemon garlic alfredo
- Transfer the alfredo sauce to a tall sided container
- Use and immersion blender to make it nice and smooth
- Incorporate the lemon garlic sauce into the alfredo sauce in about for increments, blending well between each one
Have I mentioned that I now refer to my immersion blender as my “sauce saver”?
Return the now finished sauce to the pan.
Ladle the sauce over cooked noodles (I used linguine)
Throw the chicken on top
What I learned
1. use heavy cream instead of half and half so the heat can go higher to melt the cheese faster and make a smoother sauce
2. put the noodles in the sauce so you don’t end up with “clump o’noodles”
3. Add a little lemon zest to the chicken breading
Ugh, I’m a messy cook!
Matthew said it tasted almost exactly like the old Houlihan’s dish, so I guess Mission Accomplished!
