Chicken Spaghetti Squash

Chicken Spaghetti…..a Texas staple at any good Church pot luck, but my god it might be the worst thing on the planet to eat. Well that and anything else containing a cream of something soup. I have ban the cream of something soups from our home. Ryan might cook with it when I am out of town, but if I know the dish contains it I won’t cook with it and I certainly won’t eat it. It’s horrible for you.

So needless to say we haven’t had chicken spaghetti in a long time! Last week I decided there had to be a way to clean this recipe up and make it healthier. So I began searching Pinterest and found some ideas. I removed the spaghetti and put spaghetti squash in it’s place, removed the cream of mushroom/chicken soup, subbed in my own soup version and decreased the amount of cheese. I was worried Ryan might not like it but it was a HUGE hit! Many people have asked for the recipe and my smart friend Kara suggested I put it on the blog. I am not so great at writing my own recipes down so here it goes.

Ingredients:

-spaghetti squash (1 large or 2 small)

-1 can rotel

-1 can mushroom stems and pieces (drained)

-1/2 cup shredded cheese

-1 pound chicken (I happened to have half a chicken in the freezer so I boiled that (skin removed of course and fat trimmed) and used the breast, thigh and drumstick. In the future for simplicity I will just use breasts

-2/3 cup diced onion

-1 green bell pepper, diced

-1 red bell pepper diced

For cream of gross soup substitute:

- 3 tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)

-dash of salt

-dash of pepper

- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

- 1/2 cup chicken broth

- 3/4 cup milk

 

Preparation:

Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and place meat side down in a 9x13 pan with water. Bake at 350-400 until the “meat” is fork tender. (about 1- 1 1/2 hrs depending on oven)

Cook chicken. You can bake it, boil it, cook in the skillet. Whichever way you want. Dice chicken when it’s cooled

While squash is cooking, spray skillet with Pam, combine diced bell peppers, and onions in a skillet and cook until softened.

Once spaghetti squash is cooked, allow to cool and then scrape out the insides. It should be stringy. I got about 7 1/2 cups of spaghetti squash from 1 large squash.

To make “soup:

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat, once butter is melted sprinkle in dry ingredients while whisking. Continue whisking and slowly add chicken broth and whisk until well blended. Then slowly add skim milk, while constantly whisking. Continue to whisk on low to medium heat until sauce thickens.

In a large bowl, combine spaghetti squash, rotel, mushrooms, bell pepper/onion mixture, sauce, and chicken and mix well. Once mixed, pour into 9x13 baking dish and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 min to an hour (until everything is hot and bubbly)

I calculated this to have four servings, but it could feed 6. Based on varying servings sizes calories will be from 244 (6 servings) to 366 (4 servings)

 

Enjoy!!!