Mom-Approved Chicken Spaghetti

All kids love spaghetti, that’s mostly true. Except I never did. In fact, when I was a child I thought it was horrible and would refuse to eat it. My mom would heat up a can of chicken and dumplings for me instead.

My kids, however, they love spaghetti. They do cheers over spaghetti. They would have it every night if I’d let them. Now, tastes change over the years, so a bowl of spaghetti isn’t as bad as I thought it once was. Yet, there’s still just something missing for me. Though if you ask my kids, they prefer a simple noodles and sauce with a sprinkle of cheese.

That’s probably what’s missing. There’s just not much to it but a lot of pasta sauce.

As such, I’ve been experimenting ever so slightly. I don’t want to go too crazy or my kids will protest. I know, meatballs. Which is a good suggestion. Although you can’t go wrong with chicken. Chicken is a staple around here. Everything is better with chicken. Plus, adding a bit of chicken to your pasta is a great way to introduce my favorite protein without having to spend a fortune.

I keep the spaghetti noodle portion the way my kids prefer, this just makes it more than a lot of pasta sauce for me. The addition of the sun-dried tomato pesto gives it a deeper, brighter taste. I don’t add the chicken directly into the pasta, though, to make sure I can oblige everyone. It rests on top not only to maintain its flavor, but also so you can do with it what you please. Plus, the chicken is just delicious on its own.

This Chicken Spaghetti serves 4 adults heartily, or in my case 2 adults and 3 kids.

Mom-Approved Chicken Spaghetti

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

A way to add a little bit more flavor to regular spaghetti.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 3/4 lb. spaghetti
• 3 chicken breasts, bite-size pieces
• 1 Tbsp. sun-dried tomato pesto sauce
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/3 onion, diced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Boil your water and prepare your noodles as usual.
2. Dice your onion. Add a few tbsps olive oil to your pan over medium heat and begin to saute your onion.
3. I get the bags of frozen chicken breasts for quick additions like this. So after 3 breasts are thawed, I slice them into long strips, then cut those in half to make smaller strips. Add garlic right before you add chicken breasts strips to the pan with the onion.
4. Once chicken is brown, stir in 1 tbsp. sun-dried tomato pesto sauce.
5. Drain pasta. I like to then put it back in the hot pot it was cooking in. Add your spaghetti sauce directly to pasta over very low heat.
6. Add spaghetti to bowl. Top with chicken mixture. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese. Pair with a side of garlic bread.

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