Funereal Foods

Well, still kinda riffing off the days spent w/family before/after my dad’s funeral. This is a twice-removed kind of post. At one of the family gatherings featuring comfort foods brought by my mom’s by friends, a small taste of something the preparer called “chicken spaghetti” (small spoonful was all I tasted) prompted me to make a kind of chicken tetrazinni the other night, using just what I had on hand. Turned out better than I expected it to.

3 chicken breasts
about 8 oz spaghetti broken into 4″ pieces* (see below)
one medium onion, minced
2 celery ribs, minced
1/2 medium bell pepper, minced
one can of cream of celery soup
4 oz heavy cream
2 C shredded cheese. I used a colby/cheddar mix.

Cube and cook the chicken breasts on medium heat, in olive oil, in a large fry pan. Add the bell pepper, celery and onion and turn down to simmer. Meanwhile, slightly over-cook the spaghetti in salted water. By that I mean to cook it well beyond the al dente stage that’s best for spaghetti you intend to eat as normal to a stage much fuller of water, softer but not falling apart. I’m not sure how many minutes’ time at the boil that would be for your altitude, whatever, so just keep an eye on it.

When the spaghetti’s ready and the bell pepper, onions and celery have joined the chicken in the Borg of Flavor Assimilation, drain the spaghetti and combine all the ingredients in a baking dish. Bake covered (foil or the baking dish’s cover, if it has one) at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes or so until whatever cheese is just naturally on the top has nicely/barely browned–personal taste.

Remove from the oven and let it sit uncovered for a few minutes, then chow down.

It got a “Keeper” award from my Wonder Woman, so it’s OK. If I’d had some red bell peppers, I’d have added it to the minced veggies. Maybe next time.

No, this isn’t the “Chicken Spaghetti” recipe we had last weekend. That used cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups, and Velveeta. *meh* Not exactly my thing, though it tasted pretty good at the time.

*about the spaghetti: I had a 32-oz box of spaghetti I wanted to store in a tall, decorative jar, but the spaghetti was 12″ long and I only had 8″ of storage, so… I made this recipe out of the 4″ I broke off the 12″ long spaghetti. Actually, it was those 4″ pieces that compelled me to make the dish in the first place, as I didn’t have a good place to store them, so… 😉