I had never heard of Chicken Spaghetti until a local mom and pop restaurant started serving it as there “Tuesday Special”. Intrigued, my friend and I ordered it. I mean, I love chicken and I love spaghetti so I was sure to love this, right? Right! We made this our usual Tuesday takeout dish and a couple of months in, they stopped serving it. I mean it isn’t anything life altering like the flank steak I had in Cancun, but you know us Southern girls never met a casserole we didn’t like so we were pretty bummed when they ripped the fork from our hands. After serious thought on what I was going to do since starving on future Tuesday’s wasn’t an option, our inner fat girls did the only thing we could: we Googled it of course!
You’ll be surprised at how easy and inexpensive this dish is! You can feed about 6 people for less than $25.00!!!!
What You’ll Need:
16 once package thin spaghetti noodles
1 white onion
1 jar pimento peppers
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can chicken broth
chicken bouillon (optional)
1 large pack sharp cheddar
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt & pepper
seasoning salt
cayenne pepper (optional)
First, bring a large pot with chicken broth and water to boil. I also add a couple of spoonfuls of “Better than Bouillon” to give it more flavor. Add your chicken breasts. Once fully cooked, remove from heat and allow to soak. This locks in more of the flavor 🙂
Next, finely chop your onion (I use about half of it) and mix in 3 large spoonfuls of the pimento peppers and lightly sprinkle with parsley flakes.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, your onion/ pimento mix and season to taste (salt, pepper, seasoning salt). Add cayenne pepper if you like a little “kick”, but be easy with it. Stir together.
Remove your chicken breast and sit them aside to cool, and remove about 2 cups of the broth (you’ll use this later), then return the pot and remaining broth to the stove and bring to a boil. You’ll use it to cook your noodles in the next step.
Once water/ broth is boiling, add your noodles. I break them in half before cooking. I also add olive oil to water, I find this helps to keep the noodles from sticking together.
Once your chicken is cooled enough to touch, start to pull apart and add to your mixing bowl. This is wear the 2 cups of broth you separated come in. Start with 1/2-1 cup. You want your mixture thin, but not too thin (this time I only needed 1 cup, but you never know and it’s better to over prepare).
When your noodles are cooked, add them and 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar to your mix. This time, I added a cup of mozzarella as well, but I think I prefer it with only the sharp cheddar.
Pour your mix into a large casserole dish, cover with shredded sharp cheddar and bake on 350 for about 20-25 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown and casserole becomes bubbly.
The finished dish:
Side note: This dish is even better the next day after the onion and spices have really set in:)