Cajun Chicken Pasta and Paula Dean’s Cheese Biscuits

** This post was imported as a part of my top 30 from my old blog – What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen**

My friend was raving about this delicious dinner she had, so, of course I asked for the recipe. The funny thing was that when I was making my weekly menu and writing out my grocery list I realized that I had the EXACT recipe in my “to try” folder. Great minds think alike I guess. Her liking it was the kick in the butt I needed to make Cajun Chicken Pasta and Paula Dean’s Cheese Biscuits.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

4 ounces linguine pasta
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, sliced into thin strips
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons butter
1 green bell pepper, chopped [I used orange bell pepper instead]
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
4 fresh mushrooms, sliced [I omitted because I forgot to get them, oops]
1 green onion, minced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream [I used half and half]
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add linguine pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.
Meanwhile, place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl, and toss to coat.
In a large skillet over medium heat, saute chicken in butter until no longer pink and juices run clear, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add green and red bell peppers, sliced mushrooms and green onions; cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat, and stir in heavy cream. Season the sauce with basil, lemon pepper, salt, garlic powder and ground black pepper, and heat through.
In a large bowl, toss linguine with sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

Paula Dean’s Cheese Biscuits (from The Lady and Sons cookbook)

2 cups self rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup crisco [I used butter flavor]
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and sugar together with fork; cut in shortening until it resembles cornmeal. Add cheese. Stir in buttermilk all at one time just until blended. Do not over stir. Drop by tablespoonfuls (or and ice cream scoop, I used my Pampered chef scoop) onto well greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.