Recipe Contest at Sauce Eats!!!!!!!!

It's Contest Time at SITS!!!!! You ask what is SITS it stands for The Secrets in the Sauce, just click on the link and read the post and you will know what it's all about. I am entering a Recipe Contest at The Secrets in the Sauce - Recipes. The top 10 chosen by (Heather & Tiffany with help from an actual professional chef) will go up to a public vote. Yes you read correctly public vote so you can bet I will be bugging and pestering you guys for votes if mine is chosen as one of the top 10 recipes. The Prize....... $100 Gift Card to Williams-Sonoma and a New Digital Camera. Gosh I could really use that new Camera the one I am currently using isn't mine so winning that would be a plus.

The recipe has to be somewhat original no copy cats so the recipe I chose is my Old Fashioned Chicken Spaghetti. This recipe is just wonderful a true old fashioned southern favorite. I went through a lot of recipes for chicken spaghetti through the years tossing and mixing ingredients from different recipes to come up with this perfect combination, so this is is my Chicken Spaghetti Recipe. I know when you look at the recipe and see all the steps you might think it is a lot of work. Just trust me on this one its so worth it. This recipe just screams real comfort food!!!!

Old Fashioned Chicken Spaghetti

Recipe Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken Breasts, Chicken Pieces or 1 Whole Chicken Fryer
1 - 12 oz Box Spaghetti Noodles
1 - 16 oz Log of Velveeta Cheese or 1/2 of a large 32 oz Log (Cubed)
1 - can 10.5 oz Cream of Chicken Soup
1 - can 14 oz Chicken Broth or 2 cups Reserved Broth
1 - Stick Margarine (1/2 Cup)
1 - 8oz Package Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 - Small Onion (Chopped)
2-3 Celery Ribs (Chopped)
1/8 Cup Green Bell Pepper (Chopped)
Sliced Black Olives (Optional but wonderful)

First fill a big stock pot with water. Clean and rinse a whole fryer or chicken pieces. Add chicken to your pot of water, I also add a little Lawry's Season Salt & a sprinkle of Poultry Seasoning but that's optional. Wash hands after handling chicken. Turn stove to high and let chicken come to a boil. Once chicken comes to a rolling boil, turn heat down and simmer chicken till done. For a whole fryer about 2 hours. For chicken breasts or pieces 45-50 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot and place on a plate to cool. Reserve broth. Cook Spaghetti noodles per package directions, but instead adding the spaghetti to a pot of water we are going to use our chicken broth that we cooked the chicken in. Add spaghetti noodles and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer noodles till tender. While spaghetti noodles are cooking go ahead and start deboning the chicken (make sure it is cool enough to handle) or break chicken breasts to smaller pieces if just using breasts.

Chop up your vegetables. and melt the stick of margarine in a small skillet. Saute your vegetables until cooked and translucent in color. Drain Spaghetti noodles and set aside. (Reserve 2 cups chicken broth if not using canned broth.) In a large bowl combine Cubed Velveeta Cheese, Chicken Broth & Cream of Chicken Soup. Place in microwave and cook on low for a about 5-7 minutes until mixture is smooth and cheese is melted (I like to use the defrost setting so i doesn't scorch the mixture). To the melted cheese mixture add cooked vegetables with butter, spaghetti noodles and chicken pieces. Stir to combine.

Spray a 9x 13 inch Casserole dish with cooking spray and add combined mixture to greased dish. Finally top finished casserole with the shredded cheese and add a few sliced black olive's on top (not pictured) The black olives are optional, but that's my husbands favorite part but its really your own preference. Put Casserole in a preheated 350 oven and bake for about 45 -50 minutes until cheese is golden brown and casserole is bubbly.

This recipe makes a big 9x13 inch size pan. If yo don't want that much use two 8x8 inch pans and before the baking step, wrap you dish in plastic wrap and then cover with foil. Write the date and store in your freezer for a quick meal or a surprise guest. Just remove from the freezer let thaw completely remove wrapping and proceed with cooking time. Click on the link below for actual Step by Step instructions along with Pictures, so you to can make this this wonderful dish.

Step by Step Instructions for
"Old Fashioned Chicken Spaghetti"
http://tinamommyx3.blogspot.com/2008/06/old-fashioned-chicken-spaghetti.html

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