Olive Garden Chicken Scampi

Shared with recipegoldmine.com by Kempa 4/11/05

This recipe was posted somewhere by a person that said she had worked at the Olive Garden. I wish I had kept her name because it does taste exactly like the Olive Garden's scampi and I and a lot of people that I have shared this recipe with would like to thank her. I have cut the original recipe down to 1/2 and then again for about 6 servings. I have found that the sauce freezes beautifully, so I make a full batch at a time and freeze in serving sizes. Hope you enjoy as much as I have.

Here is the recipe from the Olive Garden. The chicken tenderloins are the only thing not authentic. They come into the restaurant already prepared.

1 (1/2) (1/3) pound butter
1/3 cup (3 tablespoons) (2 tablespoons) garlic puree
1/3 cup (3 tablespoons) (2 tablespoons) chicken base (Minors or Tone brand)
20 (10) (8) fluid ounces Chablis (I used any dry white wine)
20 (10) (8) fluid ounces water
40 (20) (16) fluid ounces creme culinaire (or heavy whipping cream)
1 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) (1 1/4) teaspoons) Italian seasoning
1 (1/2) (1/2) teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 (1/2) (1/2) teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons (1 tablespoon) (2 1/2 teaspoons) fresh chopped parsley
Angel hair pasta

Melt butter over low heat; do not let it get it brown. Add garlic puree and let sweat for 2 minutes add remaining ingredients and simmer for approximately 10 minutes.

This is a 1x recipe, making around 1 gallon if memory serves me correctly. Amounts in parentheses are for approximately 2 quarts.

For garlic, roast 2 to 3 heads of whole garlic. Slice off top until you see cloves and pour approximately 1 tablespoon olive oil over each head. Put in oven at 325 degrees F for around 1 hour or until they smell sweet. After they cool, squeeze cloves out of the papery stuff and coarsely chop.

Cut up green, red and orange pepper into strips also red onion (1/4 by 1 inch strips). They measure, per serving, 1 1/2 ounces green pepper, 1/2 ounce red and orange pepper and 1/2 ounce red onion and 1 ounce roasted garlic. These are saut ed with the chicken.

This is the only part that is not authentic. Marinate chicken in Marzetti's lite ranch dressing, adding 1 tablespoon garlic puree and fresh parsley. Use fresh chicken tenderloin strips. There are 5 of these per serving. You will cook the sauce while that simmers. Saute chicken and veggies and toss with the amount of sauce ( approximately 6-8 fluid ounces per serving) toss hot angel hair pasta in.

If you want less fat, evaporated milk also works in place of the cream. One of my managers always insisted if we had to use whipping cream, Old Bay Seasoning was needed, about 1 teaspoon, but I really never agreed.

Served as at Olive Garden. Mix pasta and sauce together. Place in dish and top with chicken strips and pepper garnish. ( I found it is easier to put pasta in individual serving dish and add sauce and garnish. Mix. Place 5 chicken strips on top.)