Chicken Spaghetti – A Recipe From My Family to Yours

Welcome to Words on Wednesday for February 3, 2016.

We have just finished dinner at our house – soft beef tacos, yum – and it made me realize that I’d forgotten to write this post. Say what?!

Writing it in my head doesn’t seem to count, somehow. Go figure!

Today I wanted to share a recipe from our Family Favourites recipe box. Chicken Spaghetti.

Now, I cannot take credit for this recipe as it’s not my original idea. It’s my Mother-in-laws. She made this for my husband and myself after the birth of our first daughter and it’s been a favourite, often demanded, meal since. I’ve tweaked it over the years to make it a bit more “kid friendly” so feel free to make it however you’d like.

Oh, and I’d show you a photo of the finished dish but I’ve never taken one so here …

That’s what kids who like this dish look like!

Day Family Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients:

• Chicken pieces – enough to feed your family, mine like drumsticks although it’s good with thighs too
• Canola or olive oil (your preference)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 gloves garlic, minced
• 4 or 5 mushrooms
• 1 or 2 stalks of celery
• 1 or 2 carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1 zucchini
• (basically whatever vegetables are needing to be eaten from your crisper!)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1/2 can tomato paste
• 1/2 white wine or chicken stock
• 1 tsp each oregano and basil
• 2 tsp chili powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cheese slices (American Cheese for my Yank readers)
• 2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• Spaghetti noodles (enough to feed your family)

Method:

1. Prep your vegetables by giving them all a rough chop. Please note: they will all be going in the blender eventually so it doesn’t matter if they look pretty as long as they will cook evenly. If you would like to keep your sauce chunky then spend a bit more time “chopping pretty”. 🙂 Set aside.

2. Heat 2 Tbsp of the oil in a large skillet (one with a lid – you’ll need it later) on medium high heat, then add the chicken pieces once it’s hot. Brown the chicken on all sides (approximately 3-4 minutes per side) then remove from the pan. De-glaze the pan with the wine (optional) or a bit of chicken stock if not using the wine. Pour this de-glazing liquid over your chicken as you’ll want all that yummy flavour for later.

3. Heat another 1 to 2 Tbsp oil in the same pan and start cooking your vegetables. Just throw everything in at the same time. It’ll all be okay! Cook until soft but not mushy – approximately 10 minutes on medium heat.

4. Once the vegetables are cooked, remove the pan from the heat, pour all the vegetables into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Basically so there are no chunks left that your kids could identify as a vegetable! Heaven forbid they know how healthy you’re making this for them!

If you are not going to be blending the vegetables (because you can Adult and eat recognizable vegetables or have amazing kids) then skip this step and add your tomato sauce etc as per step 5.

5. Add the blended vegetable mixture plus the tomato sauce, tomato paste and spices back to the pan. Combine well then add in the chicken and all the juices that have leaked out. Cover and cook on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and fall apart tender – about 15 to 20 minutes.

6. While the chicken is cooking, boil your water and cook your spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Don’t forget this step! 🙂

7. Just before serving, lay the cheese slices over the chicken pieces and allow to melt.

8. Serve. (Sprinkle the adult plates with fresh parsley.)

9. Enjoy!

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