Chicken spaghetti

I am obsessed with reading The Pioneer Woman. I don't even make her recipes (except tonight) but I love her pictures!! I'm going to end up on her doorstep one day! We are great friends..really er.. not really! Don't burst my bubble! She is my food idol, my Paula Dean!

My family doesn't do casseroles! I love casseroles. Especially tuna casserole! Mmm if I can ever get everyone to leave for the night it will be the first dish I make! I promise!

So I am taking a huge gamble making a casserole tonight. I am hoping that The Fireman will like it considering it has Cream of Mushroom Soup in it. He has a secret love affair with Cream of Anything Soup. It will be touch and go with my son. I bet he chooses cereal tonight! And we won't even mention the other child..you know she HATES Cream of Anything, none the less, a casserole. So I bet I will be batting 0 for 2 if you speak baseball.

Chicken Spaghetti
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Original recipe can be viewed on Pioneer Woman's site Under The only Casserole Marlboro Man will eat

Ingredients


2 cups Cooked Chicken
3 cups Dry Spaghetti, Broken Into Two Inch Pieces
2 cans Cream Of Mushroom Soup
2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
¼ cups Finely Diced Green Pepper
¼ cups Finely Diced Onion
1 jar (4 Ounce) Diced Pimentos, Drained
2 cups Reserved Chicken Broth From Pot
1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
⅛ teaspoons (to 1/4 Teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1 cup Additional Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Take one Chicken that has been cut up (think fried chicken pieces) or two half chicken breasts on the bone and boil in a pot for about 30 minutes.

Look at what I paid for these! I will get two nights out of one package! What a deal!
Do not discard the liquid. Take Chicken out and pick the meat off the bones into bite size pieces.

While the chicken is boiling...I've got some cutting and prep work!

About one half of a bell pepper. The red ones were the same price as the green so I went with the yummy red! The other half I will use for another recipe.

I only used a 1/4 of the onion. Make sure you cut it really small. The only chance it has to cook is while in the oven.

Break up the spaghetti. As you can see, I didn't use the whole box. Whole Wheat would work nice here too. I used what was in the pantry.

Grate cheese..see those chunks in the corner? Those are for the Cheese Police! No joke!


Reserve 2 cups of the broth the chick boiled in

Break up about one box of spaghetti in 2 inch bite sizes until you have about three cups. Dump into the boiling water the chicken cooked in. Watch carefully you do not over cook. You are looking for Al dente. It will continue to cook in the oven. Drain

In a very large bowl (you will see that mine could have been a little bigger) add the cooked noodles, the chicken, bell peppers, onions, pimientos, cream of Mushroom soup, cheese, seasonings (yes even the 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper...it wont be too spicy, I promise!) and mix well.


Start add the liquid you reserved. I used about 1/12 cups. You are not looking for soup so don't over do it.

Turn the mixture into a greased casserole dish. Cover with cheese and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 oven.


This casserole reminds me of what you take when you are feeding a family (new baby, mom's sick, etc)
The leftovers are better than the original night. I would make two changes to this recipe, first I would use Cream of Chicken instead of Mushroom. And I would add Ortega Chilis to the casserole.