CAJUN CHICKEN
3 boneless chicken breasts, sliced in thin strips
2 teaspoons Cajun Seasoning
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
3 medium green and/or red bell peppers, cut in thin strips, 8 ounces
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
4 green onions, cut diagonally in 1/2-inch pieces
1/8 teaspoon basil
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
In a medium bowl, toss the chicken pieces with the Cajun seasoning. Heat the butter and oil in a large, nonstick skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Stir-fry the chicken until it's not quite done. Don't overcook it as it will get further cooking with the remaining ingredients. Add the peppers and mushrooms. Stir-fry until the peppers are crisp-tender. If using xanthan gum, mix with seasonings in a small bowl. Reduce heat to low and stir in seasonings and then the cream. Cook just until sauce thickens. Add green onions and toss briefly to combine. Season with more salt, if needed; serve at once.
Makes 4 large servings
Freezing not recommended
Per Serving: 287 Calories; 19g Fat; 22g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs
It's been quite a while since I first made this dish. It didn't call for the xanthan gum, but the sauce is very thin without it. The original recipe this is based on had pasta in it to soak up the sauce. If you'd rather not use xanthan gum, although I highly recommend it, you could add some low carb pasta. I've tweaked this recipe a bit to have more peppers and mushrooms than originally posted and decided to add the green onions at the end to keep them crisper and fresher tasting. Make sure you don't overcook the peppers. They should be quite crisp. As you can see in the photo, I only used green peppers. That's because the red ones were outrageously expensive this week. This will look very pretty with a touch of red in with the green, but the flavor is about the same either way. This dish is so good that it tastes like something that could be served in a restaurant. That's because it came from a restaurant and was tweaked to be low carb. I like this tweaked version so well that I will make it often. Click the photo for a close-up.