Easy-Peasy Dinners, Pt. 1: Ranch Rotisserie Chicken Pasta

  This was another Pinterest recipe with which I took some creative liberties. When I had to run through the grocery store last week around dinner time, I decided to pick up a rotisserie chicken, remembering I had seen something online with recipes to "fix it up". I used one of the recipes I found the first night and it was good...But added my own little twist to it when I made it the next night (a rotisserie chicken can last a while between two people when you know how to do it right!). And the best part? Dinner's ready, start to finish, in ten minutes. Here's what I did:

Ranch Rotisserie Chicken Pasta

• 1/2 boxed pasta - I used Barilla's bowtie, but shells or rigatoni would work just as well!
• 3 Tbs butter
• 2-3 Tbs flour
• 1 package dry Ranch seasoning mix
• 2 cups milk or Half & Half (less flour if you're using the thicker dairy product)
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, either sliced thinly or shredded (any cheese will work, but the Swiss and Ranch flavors combine nicely)
• 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken  (approximately 1 leg/thigh quarter of the chicken)

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box and then drain.

2. While this is cooking, in a medium-sized pot, on a medium-low heat melt 1 Tbs of the butter and then sautee the onion until it's opaque. Lower the heat and then add the remaining butter. Once it's melted, add the flour and whisk until it makes a thick, bubbling paste. Slowly combine the milk until thickened and bubbling. Cook 1 additional minute, then add the cheese. (The original recipe called for "shredded" cheese here, but I had deli slices, so I used about four of those and it was perfect!) Turn the heat to "low" and add the Ranch and pepper and combine. Last, add the chicken and combine. 

3. Combine pasta and sauce and enjoy!* Dinner's done in 10 minutes! David could not stop going on about this recipe, even calling it his "new favorite dish" - possibly even over hamburgers! If you know my husband, you know a person could never receive a higher compliment on their cooking. I hope y'all enjoy this easy meal as much as we did!

*The original recipe called for crumbled bacon to be served on top of the dish, which I'm sure would be yummy! We just don't buy a lot of bacon and I used what we had. I also added a pinch of dried cilantro to the sauce and it was quite yummy, too. Also, this recipe was just enough for both David and I, so if feeding more, you'd want to at least double it.