For Celiac Awareness Month I am super excited to partner with Mountain High Organics. We have used their gluten free pastas for several years and I am always impressed with the quality. But not only quality... if you've bought gluten free before you know not all are created alike and texture is different between brands.
The biggest kicker for me, outside of being gluten free and organic, is the texture of Mountain High's pasta. Some pasta varieties tend to fall apart or have a grainy mouth feel, this one is so well made that I would bet you can't tell a difference between this penne and a regular gluten penne.
I was so hoping one of our favorite college kids who happens to be gluten intolerant could come by last night for dinner to taste test the pasta, but they had all headed back home after church. While we don't have to worry about any intolerance in our own household, we have had students who do.
This makes such a difference when we all get together to hang out or for a game night, being gluten intolerant puts many stipulations on where you can order food from or what you can eat at a get-together.
I really love that this pasta is made in a dedicated gluten-free facility (so no worries for customers), and certified by the Gluten Intolerance Group. It's also been tested to contain less than 5ppm of gluten. Plus you'll notice the American Masters of Taste Gold Medal endorsement on the front of the box, showing you just how great this product and company are.
The next time our little group of friends get together I'll be making this pasta dish again for everyone to taste test Mountain High Organics pasta themselves. In fact if you were around the blog several years ago I made this Party Sandwich Pasta for some friends and they loved the taste and texture of dish.
On to the recipe steps. Y'all forgive my awful lighting. It was a gloomy day of sprinkling rain in South Louisiana yesterday.
Also, against my blogger judgement, I won't run all through the recipe here and then give it to you again. I just want to give a few pointers before I leave you with the recipe below.
We are actually working on a church cookbook right now and I am finding my biggest issue with entering my own recipes is that I want to go full blogger and leave massive explanations in the notes sections of each recipe. 😂
So let's get going.
First off, cut all of your meat up ahead of time. It will make cooking so much faster. This recipe also is only 1/6th of the original, so it is super easy to scale up for a big crowd.
The recipe calls for Cajun Seasoning. I personally use Cajun Red Head for anything that I want to have a more authentic Cajun flavor. Tony's comes off as more of a house blend seasoning and not super Cajun tasting. But use what you love, I get this particular seasoning at Rouse's grocery store.
While you're browning your Jimmy Dean and chicken, grab your seasoning blend. I've mentioned seasoning blend in previous recipes over the years and anyone not from the South is always confused.
It's just simply an onion, bell pepper, celery blend with a bit of parsley added in. You can find it in the frozen foods section here. Another popular brand is Guidry's, it is in the produce section and fresh.
When you make it to the andouille chopping section of the recipe, after the chicken is removed from the pan. Make sure that your andouille is in a small dice. It is spicy and you really don't want some huge piece of it in your mouth.
As I mentioned above, this is 1/6th of the original recipe. It's meant to be cooked large scale for a crowd. Because I only make a small batch when I cook, I have a gallon bag labeled "for pastalaya" in the freezer.
You are going to use the whole package of regular Cajun sausage and chicken, but the Jimmy Dean Hot and the andouille are 1/6th of the package. Because of this I like to go ahead and cut my link and Jimmy Dean package into 1/6ths and freeze for the next time we make this.
Finding the Cajun sausage you want can be a chore. Ideally I would have gone to a local meat market, but it was Sunday when I finally had time to run out and grab the sausage (Walmart doesn't carry the brand I like) so I headed to a local grocer. The recipe calls for Savoie's, but if you are not in Louisiana you can use Manda or any smoked sausage. Just know, more andouille is not the answer. It adds a different spice and you don't want tons of that in your pasta.
When slicing the Cajun sausage I just cut it on the diagonal. Nothing tiny, just bite size.
After browning your meat the bottom of your pan might have built up some browning. When I put my sausage into the pot I just went ahead and added my frozen seasoning blend. The frozen onions let off enough liquid that it deglazed everything easily.
You'll then add your garlic and cook everything down really well. Notice the swap between camera and phone photos, the lighting was really a pill.
After all of my meat was cooked through, I tossed it back into the pot with all of the liquids. Brought it to a boil and weighed out 1lb of my Mountain High Organics Penne Pasta. Which by the way you can order from their website or even through Amazon.
Once your pasta is cooked, you are done.
Pastalaya
1/6th of the original recipe
Ingredients:
1 lb penne pasta
1/2 bunch green onions, snipped
12 oz seasoning blend
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cups heavy cream
5 tbsp whole milk
1 patty Jimmy Dean Spicy
1 lb chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
1 lb Savoie sausage, sliced
1/6th lb andouille sausage, diced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 quart chicken broth
Cajun Red Head Seasoning to taste
Directions:
Cook Jimmy Dean sausage, breaking into crumbles. Set it aside. Cook diced chicken thighs, season well with Cajun seasoning. Set aside. Brown all other sausage, add in seasoning blend and cook down. Add in garlic and season with Cajun seasoning again, cooking for 2 minutes. Add all meat back into the pot with heavy cream, milk, condensed soup, and broth. Heat to a boil and then cut down to simmer to thicken. Add pasta, cover, and bring to a light boil. Cook according to package directions on pasta. Continue to stir to prevent sticking. Add in your green onions and stir. Serve.
The original recipe calls for chicken breasts, but honestly I am just not a fan of the texture. So if you are one of the anti dark meat people, just sub in chicken breasts.
One thing I really like about this is that is has plenty of sauce. There is nothing worse than a dry pasta recipe when it touted to have sauce and you even made the sauce... but the sauce just seemed to vanish in thin air.
I really hope you give this a try! This is honestly my favorite gluten free pasta brand that I have tried. When we eat this as leftovers for dinner the pasta will still be holding it's shape and not falling absolutely apart like some of the brands on the market.
Mountain High Organics on Amazon
