Three Cheese Mexican Pasta

This post is part of a media campaign through The Daily Buzz Ambassador Program for Progresso Sauces.  You all know Progresso as a soup company.  Well, they have created new prepared sauces.  These sauces are to be used as the base of making simple, quick and easy recipes.  The sauces do have suggestions for you to follow or you can go freestyle – make one up on your own.  Of course, this food blogger had to make one up.  Now, I did not get carried away mind you.  I simply added some sautéed vegetables and some chicken I had smoked on the smoker to come up with this Three Cheese Mexican Pasta.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Three Cheese Sauce from Progresso
• 2 smoked chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced
• 2 slices of yellow onion, halved
• 3 – 4 Sweet peppers, sliced and halved
• 1 tsp each Smoked paprika, annotto (achiote molido)
• 1/2 tsp Mexican chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Start by cooking your pasta per the box instructions.  Drain the pasta when al dente.  Save some of the pasta water for use in the sauce.  Next, heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add in all the vegetables.  Stir the vegetables so they get covered with the oil.  Next add in all the spices and mix through the vegetables well.  Saute the vegetables until soft – about 5 minutes.

Next, add in the cheese sauce and mix well.

Finish the sauce by adding in the chicken (the chicken was smoked using cherry smoking would on low heat for 90 minutes in my green egg).  Add just a little of the pasta water if you want a lighter sauce.  Complete the dish by pouring the pasta noodles directly into the sauce.

Coat the pasta noodles well.

Serve and enjoy!