Monday, January 25, 2010

Church Casserole Chicken Spaghetti


Deluged!

Everyone either knows of this dish, or wants to make it. It's sort of brand new to me , my mother made it of us over Christmas. It is very good, pretty darn easy, and really, feeds A LOT OF PEOPLE.


CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

• 1 stick ( a quarter cup) Butter
• 1 LARGE GREEN PEPPER ( CHOPPED )
• 1 LARGE ONION ( CHOPPED)
• 3 CUPS CHOPPED COOKED CHICKEN
• 2 ( 10 OZ) CANS DICED TOMATOES WITH GREEN CHILIES –DRAINED
( I USE ROTEL)
• 2 (4.5 OZ) JARS SLICED MUSHROOMS -DRAINED
• 1 (15 OZ) CAN ENGLISH PEAS -DRAINED ( I really like the peas in this, and do not see why you could not use two cans...)
• 1 (15 OZ) CAN CHICKEN BROTH
• 1 (10.75 OZ) CAN CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP
• 1 (10.75 OZ) CAN CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP
• 1 ( 3.8 OZ) CAN SLICED BLACK OLIVES (DRAINED)
• 1 TEASPOON SALT
• 1 TEASPOON BLACK PEPPER
• 2 (8 OZ) PACKAGES SHREDDED SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE
• 2 ( 7 OZ) PACKAGES VERMICELLI BROKEN INTO 2 INCH PIECES COOKED AND DRAINED ( I dont really know what this means, .. because a box of vermicelli is not 7oz... I just two regular boxes)

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES

LIGHTLY GREASE A 4 QT BAKING DISH

IN A LARGE DUTCH OVEN, OVER MEDIUM HEAT,MELT BUTTER – ADD PEPPER AND ONION AND COOK APPROX 5 MINUTES OR UNTIL TENDER. STIR IN CHICKEN, TOMATOES ,MUSHROOMS, PEAS,BROTH,SOUP,OLIVES,SALT AND PEPPER UNTIL COMBINED. ADD CHEESE, STIRRING UNTIL MELTED. ADD VERMICELLI, TOSS GENTLY T0 COMBINE. SPOON INTO PREPARED DISH- BAKE FOR 30 MINUTES OR UNTIL HOT AND BUBBLY.

( UNLESS I HAVE A LARGE CROWD TO FEED, I MAKE THIS CASSEROLE IN TWO ( 2 QT) DISHES AND FREEZE ONE.

Start by just cooking up your boxes of noodles.
Onions and peppers. I thought of using some heat here , but with the Rotel, you really don't need to. As a matter of fact, if you want less heat, just buy mild tomatoes.
I roasted a chicken, but you could just as easy buy a rotisserie chicken , let it cool and use that. Or Grilled breasts , or really, I am guessing any sort of chicken you have.
The Chicken above, all cleaned and chopped
Adding the cheese. My very good pal and avid k+b reader, DAN asked me if this dish was " Rotel Chicken" ? I told him that it had Rotel tomatoes in in. He then asked if I used Velveeta... Which I did not. His husbands folks , down in rural Mississippi, make almost the exact same dish with the processed American cheese food, that I am very fond of, so I did not use Velveeta this time, but would try it in the future. I am sure it would only make it more creamy.
All the empties!
I added a little Parmesan to the top of mine about half way through baking...

2 comments:

b said...

Here are two more I've made. Both are a lot of trouble, I thought.You gotta love who you're feeding it to a lot. Which is why I guess they are both from mothers.

Craig Claiborne's mother's:
http://www.labellecuisine.com/Archives/craig_claiborne_chicken_spaghett.htm


And Jaffner's mother's:
6 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed or torn
8 oz vermicelli, cooked in chicken broth and water
Sautee 1 large onion, 6 stalks celery, chopped, in 1/2 stick butter
Nuke 16 oz Velveeta and 1 can Rotel tomatoes until melted.
Combine all plus mushrooms and green olives with 4 cups chicken stock.
(Then I suppose you bake it. I only did this once.)

b said...

OK, guess what I slung for supper tonight? I made chicken spaghetti out of leftovers . . .half a box of spaghetti, 3 chicken breasts I'd thawed in my major freezer purge last week, some cream cheese (mistake, but I didn't have much cheese in the house), some sour cream, some MSG-infused chicken bouillon sprinkles, some grated extra sharp cheddar and parmesan, salt and peppa, and some frozen peas and carrot slivers for color. Oh, and some of my fabulous veggie broth because it was too dry.

It took me maybe 20 minutes, including grating cheese, to put it together and shove it in the oven.

I thought it looked disgusting. I didn't eat it, but all three of them gobbled it up and said to make it again.

They like the crummy stuff and not the good stuff. I think when I made the other two recipes they didn't like them because there were too many exotic ingredients.

I am a failure as a mother.