Recipe: Chicken Spaghetti

Recipe: Chicken Spaghetti

 When I was in college my roommate, Andrea, would make the best chicken spaghetti I've ever had in my life. It was cheesy, delicious, and it always made enough to last us for a couple of days. Being college students, we were always broke, but this chicken spaghetti recipe was also really inexpensive. 

I haven't had it in at least a year, probably longer, and I woke up yesterday morning craving it. I messaged Andrea on FB and she was happy to give me the recipe. The only problem is that it required some ingredients that I could not get here in Poland - mainly velveta, condensed cream of chicken, and condensed cream of mushroom.

Luckily I had smuggled some velveta across the border (we aren't supposed to bring cheese into Poland - but lets be honest, velveta can hardly be considered cheese) so that was not going to be an issue for me, but I did not have the cream of chicken or mushroom needed for the recipe so I had to make that from scratch.

This is pretty much the Velveeta situation for expats in Poland.

Turns out - made from scratch cream of chicken and mushroom soups are incredibly easy to make! It look me less than 5 minutes, and I had condensed soups without all of the chemicals!

So, for this blog post I am not only going to give you the Chicken spaghetti recipe, but also the condensed soup recipes I found. It's a three for one today - or we could call it a threesome if you want to get dirty with it. ;)

If you live in another country and do not have Velveeta, I have found a homemade Velveeta recipe here.  I have not tried it yet, as I still have a good bit of my Velveeta stash left, so I can't vouch for it. But it's probably good (and definitely better for you than the "real" stuff!)

Condensed Cream of Chicken

Photo credit: A Pinch of Yum

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups chicken broth (I used 2 cans)
  
• 1½ cups milk
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 tablespoon seasoning mix (or on your own, ½ tsp. onion powder, ½ tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. parsley, etc)

Directions:

1. Combine the chicken broth and ½ cup of the milk in a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour and seasonings into the remaining 1 cup milk until a smooth, thick mixture forms.
3. Pour the flour and milk mixture into the saucepan with the broth mixture over low heat and stir continuously, whisking as the mixture simmers. Continue to simmer and stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick, 5-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken a bit as it cools.

Condensed Cream of Mushroom

Photo credit: Simply Scratch

Ingrediants:

3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1 small Shallot, minced {about a quarter cup}
1/2 cup minced Crimini Mushroom
2-1/2 tablespoons All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Vegetable Broth
1/2 cup Whole Milk
1 pinch Kosher Salt {go easy so you don't over salt when adding to the recipe}
2 pinches Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:
In a 10 inch skillet melt the three tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Once melted add in the minced shallot, stir to coat in the butter and sauté until just about soft {3-5 minutes}.
Add in the minced crimini mushrooms, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Sprinkle with the 2-1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour and let the flour cook for a minute or two. Whisk in the whole milk and vegetable broth until smooth.
Bring to a simmer and cook until it has thickened {about 5-8 minutes}.


Chicken Spaghetti 

Ingredients: 

3-4 Chicken breasts

1 pkg. spaghetti

1 lb (half a box) of Velveeta cheese cut into small pieces.

1 can of cream of chicken soup (10 oz)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (10 oz)

1/4 cup of Milk

Salt and Pepper

2 cloves garlic minced

1 small onion diced

6 mushroom caps diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Fill large pot with water and add 1 teaspoon salt.
Add chicken breasts to water and cook over high heat. Bring to boil stirring chicken about every 10 minutes. Cook for 25-30 minutes (I cut my chicken up into small pieces before boiling to reduce time. I boiled for about 15 minutes). Remove chicken from pot.
Add 1 package (12 oz) of spaghetti to water you cooked the chicken in.
Cook according to directions on package (11-13 minutes) stirring occasionally.
Drain spaghetti.
Shred chicken. Put both spaghetti and chicken to the side.

In a separate skillet, saute 1 small white onion and 2 cloves of garlic minced with a teaspoon of butter.
Once the onion and garlic is soft and translucent, add diced mushrooms and cook until soft (about 5 minutes).
Slowly add the Velveeta to this mixture,  letting it melt and mix in with the mushrooms, garlic, and onion.
Add the milk.
Add the cream of chicken and cream of mushroom and mix well until a thick sauce is formed.

Combine spaghetti, chicken, and melted mixture into a large bowl and mix.

Pour into a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve and enjoy! 



Also - check out Andrea's website http://www.agphotographix.com/ She is a wonderful photographer out of Houston, Texas.