Most nights I don’t think about dinner until I suddenly realize I missed lunch, it’s 5 o’clock and now I’m famished. Last night was no exception. Luckily, I had managed to take some pre-cut chicken (cutting the chicken into cubes, strips, or cutlets before freezing is an absolute timesaver I swear by) out of the freezer to defrost, which is usually half the battle. I had no idea what I was going to make, but I knew I wanted it to be easy, and I kind of had a craving for buffalo sauce. And thus, this Buffalo Chicken Fettuccine meal was created. I did some googling after the fact, and there are plenty of dishes like this one out there, but most of them are baked with loads of cheese. I’d like to think my version is a little lighter on the calories because there’s no cheese.

I tend to make my buffalo dishes pretty spicy so I wanted to balance out that heat with a great side dish so I baked some sweet potato fries and served them with Marie’s Lite Chunky Blue Cheese, garnished with a little parsley. I’m already excited for tomorrow’s leftovers!

Buffalo Chicken Fettuccine with Sweet Potato Fries and Blue Cheese

• I started by marinating the chicken in Steve and Ed’s Extra Hot Wing Sauce and put that to the side while I prepped the sweet potatoes.

• Preheat the oven to 425.

• Wash, peel and cut two good sized sweet potatoes into wedges, then toss them in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper until coated.

• Spread them out in an even layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes.

For the Buffalo Fettuccine Sauce:

• 3 Tablespoons butter

• 2 Tablespoons flour

• 1¼ cup milk

• 1 cup hot sauce (I used a blend of Steve and Ed’s Louisiana Hot Sauce, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Sauce, but if you prefer a milder spice just use Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.)

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then whisk in the flour until combined. Add the milk, and raise the heat to medium-high, whisking continuously. Once it’s begun to thicken, lower the heat to a simmer and add in the hot sauce.

While the sauce simmers, stirring occasionally, prepare your fettuccine according to the box. (I boiled mine for 12 minutes, which timed up perfectly with the chicken.)

This is when you’ll want to pop your chicken under the broiler in your oven for about 6 minutes per side.

When your pasta is done add it right into your sauce, adding a bit of pasta water if the sauce needs to be thinned out a little. Top with your chicken and a little parsley and serve alongside your sweet potato fries.

This made plenty for us to have lots of leftovers, so it could probably feed 4-6 people. Let me know if you give this recipe a try and tell me what you think!