Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Works-for-me Wednesday: Chicken Spaghetti


It's "low fat recipe" day over at Shannon's for WFMW. I have to admit, I have never been a particularly "healthy" cook. I grew up in the kitchen with my mom and grandmothers, three of the best southern cooks I know. I can fry up anything and make gravy to go over it! In the past few years, however, my body's ability to, um, "hide" those extra calories has decreased while my knowledge of nutrition has increased, so I have been watching fat content a little more closely. Rather than going whole-hog (sorry) into "low fat cooking" or become completely crunchy, I have been putting some of my favorite recipes on a diet. I started buying low/non-fat cream cheese, soups, etc. to use in my favorite recipes, and all of them still taste great. For now, that's as "health conscious" as it's been around here (except for the kids being our "trans-fat watchdogs" since we read about how bad those are!)

Here is one of my family's favorite dishes that I have begun making with low-fat, low-sodium ingredients. I've also found it to be very potluck-popular at gatherings.



Chicken Spaghetti

4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (or 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic)
Celery (or celery salt)
Bell pepper
1 can low-fat/low-sodium cream of chicken soup
1 can low-fat/low-sodium cream of mushroom soup
1 can chopped rotel
1 sm. Jar of pimento
1 sm. pkg. spaghetti
Shredded cheese

Boil chicken, save the broth. Cut chicken into chunks. Using a small amount of broth, saute onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Add soups, Rotel, and pimento. If too thick you may add more broth. Add chicken, salt and pepper.

Boil spaghetti. Mix spaghetti and sauce and pour into baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Once mixed together, this dish also does well in a crock pot set on low/warm.

7 comments:

Chris @ Come to the Table said...

Sounds good! I am printing it out to put in my book.

Anonymous said...

That sounds really good! I love spaghetti. Thanks for sharing!

Doris said...

My daughter doesn't like traditional spaghetti dishes. I think she will love this one - thanks!

Anonymous said...

This looks delicious! I am a new blogger, and I was sent here by my friend Amberly. I love your blog. Thanks!

Pamela said...

Oh, you know I have had something similar to to this at our church but I believe they called it Chicken Catchatori. We both just loved it! Thanks for the recipe! :)

Tricia said...

You know, when I was in high school, we did a chicken spag. fund raiser dinner. We made buckets and buckets of it. I have never been able to eat chicken spag. since! But, your recipe sounds tempting. :)

Linda said...

I am Italian through and through Cyndi - so anything with pasta sounds great to me. I think you approach is very sensible. When I try to cut down on everything, I end up cheating - rather badly. This sounds very doable!!