Back in the 90s, Ragu released a jarred sauce called “Chicken Tonight” with a catchy commercial jingle. It came in eight different flavors and the sauce was simmered over browned chicken, heralding it as a quick new innovation to boring old chicken. Along the same lines, Prego has now released a line of sauces. called “Prego Cooking Sauce.” It currently comes in five different flavors — Creamy Lemon Parmesan, Garlic & Italian Herb, Tomato & Fresh Ricotta, Creamy Marsala, and Carbonara.
The sauces are typically located either with the other jarred pasta sauces or near the pasta kits. I’ve gotten two different flavors thus far to try, the Creamy Lemon PArmesan and the Garlic & Italian Herb. Both are white sauces and come with the same basic instructions, brown chicken and simmer. Serve with pasta, rice, veggies, etc.
Granted, any of these sauces could simply be utilized for a pasta sauce, but that sort of defeats the purpose.
I’m a big cast iron fan for a lot of my cooking. I don’t use any sort of super special secret type of cast iron pan, just the Emeril one handed down from my mother. Judging by her love affair with QVC, I’m guessing that’s where it came from. Instructions for browning chicken always seem to call for one tablespoon of olive oil, but I have a tendency to use a pretty liberal tablespoon. I make sure the oil is nice and hot before I add my chicken, otherwise it tends to stick to the pan a bit.
On of my tips with chicken is I buy the big bulk packages and trim the breast down with a kitchen scissors so they’re a less thick and more reasonable cooking size. I like to throw the scraps in my small rice cooker which cooks it up really fast. Then the chicken can be shredded and used for salad or for shredded taco meat for later meals.
I have no idea how to tell if chicken is done other than to poke it with a kitchen thermometer. You can get one for a reasonable price on Amazon. Once the chicken is just about to 165, I turn down the temperature and add most of my sauce. I reserve about 1/4 of the jar to toss with some pasta and olive oil. Rice or veggies would work well, too.
The finished product is a nice browned chicken breast with a delicious sauce. The Garlic and Italian Herb was fairly mild, the garlic wasn’t overpowering, and it wasn’t too heavy like an alfredo sauce. I’ve also tried the the Creamy Lemon Parmesan, which wasn’t bad, but I was hoping for more of a lemon note that’d you’d get when fresh lemon zest is present in a dish. Parmesan was more the power player in that duo.
The cost is about $3 a jar retail but with recent promotions and coupons I’ve gotten a couple jars for $1 each and at least one jar for free. I’m not savvy with making my own sauces, so for me they’re a great lazy substitute. Easily a meal to make two or three times a month.
Suggestion for the next Prego Cooking Sauce — something with a Tex-Mex flare!
Bariatric Berks 