You will be delighted with this chicken spaghetti recipe. It is quick, easy and delicious utilizing pantry ingredients to make it affordable and quick to make.
This is a simple, family-friendly recipe part of our Pantry Budget Rescue Series. The majority of the ingredients you will find in your pantry or freezer.
Do you love Midwest Family-friendly casseroles? Try my Midwest Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole, Chicken Tater Tot Casserole, or Minnesota Tater Tot Hotdish.
Key Ingredients:
Pump up the flavor by using rotisserie chicken, if you prefer. And taking the time to saute the onions has been preferred by some family members of mine (although I don’t do it often). This recipe tastes great with gluten-free pasta (I always use it!) and, honestly, although I use cheddar cheese we find that pepper jack or Monterey jack we sometimes like better…use what you have on hand!
- Spaghetti. Traditional thin spaghetti or even angel hair all work great for this recipe.
- Pre-cooked chicken. I often have cans of chicken in the pantry for this recipe but cook up a few chicken breasts or use a rotisserie chicken for even more flavor.
- Cream soup.
- Chicken bouillon. Adding the bouillon to the salt water of the pasta is basically the same as cooking up the pasta in chicken broth. It adds a ton of flavor!
- Cheese. Cheddar, Monterey, even Velveeta cheese all work great. Use what you have on hand.
- Rotel tomatoes. Rotel combines diced tomatoes with green chilies for even more flavor!
Optional: Bell peppers (chopped green or red peppers), red pepper flakes, fresh garlic, sliced mushrooms, frozen broccoli, bacon bits, or even cream cheese.
Instructions for the chicken spaghetti casserole:
- Cook the spaghetti according to the directions using the chicken bouillon in the pasta water.
- Mix the cooked pasta, cheese, soup, Ro-tel, onion, & basil together.
- Pour into greased casserole pan.
- Bake in the oven until hot and bubbling.
Freeze/Prep ahead/Store/Reheat:
This casserole can be frozen, covered well, in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw completely prior to baking. Bake according to recipe instructions, adding 20 to 30 minutes to the bake time.
You can prep this casserole ahead and pop it into the fridge to bake when you are ready. You will need to add at least 20 minutes of baking time to account for the cold temp.
Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Reheat in the microwave for small amounts. For a large amount, I would recommend covering with aluminum foil and reheating in the oven for the best results.
Y’all, I grew up having some variation of this recipe at church potlucks and continue making it for my own family. Every time I make this recipe, it’s a little bit different based on the ingredients I have on hand. This recipe morphs easily!
→ One recipe of the recipe testers on this recipe said their family “scarfed it down”. Yep! That’s about right! 🙌
Chicken Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 2 12 ounce cans chunk white chicken OR 1.5 cups of shredded cooked chicken or close to that amount…fudge if you need to :
- 1 pound spaghetti broken in half
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese Monterey or pepper jack are also yummy!
- 3 bouillon cubes
- 1 can Ro-Tel don’t drain.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup cream of mushroom soup works great, as well.
- 1 finely diced small yellow onion about 1cup
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease 9 by 13 casserole dish.
- In a large pot, cook the spaghetti noodles according to the al-dente directions adding the chicken bouillon to the water the pasta is being cooked in. Reserve 1.5 cups of the liquid (I have a pot with a lid that has a built-in strainer that makes this easy. Alternatively, you could use tongs to pull out the pasta from the pot and put it into a strainer, remove the liquid you need, and then dump the rest).
- Return the pasta to the pot.
- Add the chicken, 1 cup of the cheese, Ro-tel (and liquid), salt, cream of chicken soup, dried basil, and diced onion.
- Stir gently.
- Add 1 cup of the liquid and, if the pasta still seems a bit dry…the remaining ½ cup.
- Dump the pasta mixture into the greased casserole pan.
- Top with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 45min – 1 hour (if the cheese starts getting to brown, cover with aluminum foil in the last 15 minutes) or until hot and bubbling.
- Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Recipe Tester Lisa says:
This was a great dish for a busy weeknight. I feel like I could have assembled it the night before and stuck it in the fridge to bake the next evening, which is always a plus for me when life is busy.
Another definite bonus of this recipe is it basically dirties 2-3 dishes. Hallelujah.
The flavor was great. My husband specifically said that the flavor was excellent. I may try adding some garlic powder next time to kick it up just that much more.
Recipe Tester Melanie says:
45 minutes in the oven was perfect since I was starting w/ chicken breast I cooked for this meal rather than leftover rotisserie or canned and did sauté the onions. Everything was lukewarm by the time I finished combing it all.
The cheese was perfectly browned and everyone scarfed it down. Another fab recipe!
This was a great dish for a busy weeknight. I feel like I could have assembled it the night before and stuck it in the fridge until I was ready to bake it the next evening, which is always a plus. Also, I love a recipe that doesn’t dirty many dishes. But none of that matters if the recipe doesn’t taste good. This one does. My husband said it had great flavor. I might add a little garlic next time to see if that makes it even better. I wish I had added a tad more of the liquid. This made for good leftovers, too.
Family approved! This is a meal that works well as a weeknight dinner for our family. It takes me less than 20 minutes to put together and pop in the oven. An hour later, it’s ready to eat! Our tomato averse 4 year old picks around the tomatoes, but otherwise, there’s not much that would trip up a picky eater and it is a win with our crew ranging in age from 2-15.