Busy weeknights are made so much better with easy dinner solutions like this Cajun Skillet Pasta! It’s a delicious, one-pan meal that will win cheers around the dinner table!
This past week gifted us a much-needed, huge snowstorm that kept the kids home from school for two days. They were ecstatic, to say the least. Playing in the snow all morning and afternoon, only coming in to drink hot chocolate or eat a quick brownie that their mom had made in the warm kitchen while enjoying the views of them frolicking in the frigid cold.
Single digit temperatures didn’t keep them from making the most of the fluffy white stuff outside. I don’t think my kids quite know how lucky they are to get snow days. Growing up, we’d get dumped with one or two feet of snow in one night, only to find that we were required to go to school the next morning.
Since the snow first started falling, my kids had been begging to go sledding up the mountains to their favorite spot. So, after school let out on Friday, my husband had them bundle up and then they made the trek by car up to the sledding hills. I opted to stay home and prep dinner, which seemed like the thoughtful, kind-hearted thing to do. I mean, they needed a warm meal to come home to and someone had to make it. 🙂 This was one evening that I wasn’t complaining about having to cook, haha.
So, while they were flying down the hills on their sleds, braving the cold, I was keeping my hands toasty warm over the stove top, cooking this Skillet Cajun Pasta. I have to say, it’s phenomenal! And not just because it saved me from having to get frost bite on the sledding hills. The red and yellow bell peppers plus the hot links sausage and cajun seasoning perfectly meld with their creamy, cheesy spiral pasta counterparts.
If I had to pick a hero, it would definitely be the skillet meal. I know it’s not a human, so does that count? I basically worship the skillet meal. I bow down to its greatness. On evenings when cooking is the last thing that I want to do, I usually can muster up the motivation to throw together a one-pan wonder like today’s Skillet Cajun Pasta or this Tuscan Chicken Skillet Pasta or this Skillet Lasagna. I think meals that can be made in 30 minutes or less, dirtying just a single skillet, are about the most extraordinary thing to ever exist. Don’t you?
A few other skillet meal favorites at our house are this Beefy Noodle Skillet Meal and this Easy Meatball Pasta Skillet Meal. You also can’t go wrong with this Chicken Burrito Skillet Meal. I hope you get a chance to try all of these very soon! They can truly rescue dinner when it seems like there’s not time to enjoy a home-cooked meal with the family. Most everyone usually has 30 minutes to throw together something yummy to eat.
Be sure to put this Cajun Skillet Pasta on the menu for a simple meal that is sure to get rave reviews! It is on the spicy side, but the “Cajun” hopefully gives you that clue. 🙂 If you want to reduce the heat, simply add a little less cajun seasoning. But don’t take it down by too much! It adds such a wonderful flavor to this pasta dish!
Cajun Skillet Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 yellow bell pepper diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 tsp. Cajun seasoning make sure it's titled "Cajun Seasoning" you can add a little less if you want to cut down on the heat
- 1 lb. Louisiana Hot Link Sausage sliced into rounds, then halved or quartered
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 9 to 10 oz. spiral pasta or your favorite pasta, uncooked
- 1/4 c. heavy cream
- 1/2 c. shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a large skillet over the stove top on medium-high heat, add olive oil. Add diced yellow and red peppers and saute, while stirring, until peppers are tender.
- Add minced garlic and Cajun seasoning and stir.
- Add Hot Link Sausage and continue to cook and stir over the stove top, for about 3 minutes. Sausage should come pre-cooked, so it won't require a lot of time.
- Stir in 3 cups chicken broth and 9 to 10 ounces of pasta.
- Cover the skillet and allow this to cook, over medium-high heat, while it bubbles and boils. Stir occasionally. Cook just until the pasta has reached desired tenderness.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and immediately stir in heavy cream, parmesan and cheddar cheese until the cheeses melt. Serve immediately.
I can’t wait for you to try this! Enjoy!
Chelsea Johnson says