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This cheesy chicken spaghetti recipe is the best you will ever make, period. I discovered that the way to make the creamiest, most flavor-packed (with no canned soups!) chicken spaghetti is to make the perfect homemade cheese sauce, and that involves tomato juice, like my tomato mac and cheese. This recipe is up there with my three-cheese creamy skillet mac and cheese recipe for sheer decadence!
Karlynn’s Recipe Rundown: Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
- Chicken spaghetti doesn’t have a classic red sauce like beef spaghetti does! It has a creamy white sauce base loaded with cheese and tomatoes.
- My recipe is loaded with flavor: there is cheese, onion, garlic, pancetta, and diced tomatoes!
- This is a rich, decadent comfort food meal. It is best served in smaller portions with a side salad or vegetables.
Quick Recipe Summary: How to Make Chicken Spaghetti
- Cook your spaghetti to al dente, drain, and cool.
- Make your cheese sauce.
- Combine the pasta and the cheese sauce.
- Bake: bake in the oven until bubbling around the edges and heated through.
Ingredient Tips You Need to Know
- Pancetta: It’s not traditionally used in chicken spaghetti, but it is my delicious addition!
- Chicken Breast: I quickly poached two chicken breasts and chopped them up small. The smaller the pieces, the better they blend into the dish. You can also use two cups of leftover chicken.
- My Secret Ingredient #1: Tomato Juice. My mother-in-law’s trick to the BEST cheese sauce is tomato juice. I have adjusted my base cheese sauce recipe to account for the additional juice in the canned tomatoes. Most other recipes for chicken spaghetti tell you to drain the tomatoes—what a loss of flavor this is! The best diced tomatoes for this recipe are the ones with green chiles.
- My Secret Ingredient #2: Velveeta is always the secret to the perfect creamy cheese sauce. However, if you genuinely don’t like Velveeta, you can add more shredded cheese to replace it.
Storage and Reheating Methods
Leftover Chicken Spaghetti = no problem!
You can refrigerate the leftovers in a sealed container for 2-3 days.
Reheat the leftovers in the microwave in one-minute increments for a fast meal. You can also place the leftovers in an oven-safe casserole dish, top with extra shredded cheese, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, and reheat at 350°F until 165°F in the middle.
Don’t want to eat the leftovers soon? You can freeze the leftovers in sealed, freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months and then defrost and reheat to eat!
Salads to Serve with Chicken Spaghetti
You will want to serve this along with a vegetable-loaded salad, like my Greek salad, cucumber salad, or my homemade Caesar salad. This is a very heavy meal, so skip the carb side dishes! You can even make a marinated vegetable salad, that 70’s classic is always a hit!
Enjoy, guys! This was five stars from the entire family, with one kid who doesn’t like chicken unless it’s in a sauce and the other who doesn’t like anything “different,” so this is 100% a hit!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
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The BEST Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti From Scratch
Ingredients
- 12 ounces spaghetti noodles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups cooked diced chicken
Homemade Cheese Sauce
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 1 cup diced white onion
- 1 cup diced pancetta
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 ounces Velveeta cheese see notes
- 2 cups shredded aged cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup sour cream
- one 284 ml can diced tomatoes and green chiles DO NOT DRAIN!!
- pepper to taste (this rarely needs salt!)
Topping
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Grease a deep-sided 9×13-inch baking pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Cook the spaghetti in a large stock pot according to the package directions to al dente. You want to cook the noodles until they are just soft on the outside but still have some toothsome texture on the inside. Once the pasta is done, drain it and run it under cold water to stop the cooking process. Place in the prepared 9×13 pan and toss with olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking together if desired.
Homemade Tomato Cheese Sauce
- Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan on medium heat. Sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Add in the pancetta and saute until heated through and sizzling. Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Sprinkle the flour over the flour mixture. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring to ensure the flour doesn't stick.
- Slowly and rapidly whisk the chicken broth into the flour mixture, making sure to whisk to ensure that there are no lumps. Once the broth has been added, keep whisking and add in the cream. Keep cooking on medium heat, whisking, until the white sauce has thickened, around 3-4 minutes.
- Turn the heat to low and stir in the Velveeta. Stir until it's mostly melted, then add the 2 cups of grated old sharp cheddar and the sour cream. Keep stirring until the cheese sauce is smooth and creamy. Make sure that all of the different cheeses have melted completely. The cheese sauce will be thick at this point. Add only black pepper to taste, as this rarely needs salt.
- Once the cheese sauce is smooth, add the tomatoes JUICE AND ALL to the cheese sauce and mix in until combined, then stir in the chicken.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the spaghetti in the pan and stir gently to combine all of the ingredients and coat the spaghetti noodles completely with the cheese sauce. Sprinkle with the cheese for the topping and place in the oven.
- Cover the casserole with tinfoil and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until heated through and bubbling at the sides. If you want the cheese to brown, remove the foil and broil for 5-7 minutes to brown the top, watching it carefully.
- Remove and let sit for 5 minutes then serve hot.
Video
Notes
- Make this ahead of time and wrap it in tinfoil and refrigerate until the next day.
- Baking this with the tinfoil on helps this to not dry out in the oven while baking!
- If you don’t want to use Velveeta, use another cup of shredded cheese instead. You WILL lose all the creaminess though!
Nutrition
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Anonymous says
amaxing
Linda says
Horrible Recipe. Way too much cheese and I can’t even imagine using thick cream.
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Thanks for trying!
Kaitlin says
This was good, but I found it lacking in something too. I used all sharp cheddar instead of any processed cheese and found I needed to add salt. I ended up adding oregano too to give it more flavor. I think I’d add extra diced tomatoes and some bell pepper next time. And use regular milk instead of heavy cream since I it was a bit on the heavy side for me personally.
I appreciate recipes with no no canned cream junk, while still being quick and yummy for everyone in my family!
cynthia welzbacher says
I give it 0…sorry that was total cheese glop with no flavor.
What a waste of food. And time.
Maybe 2 cans of rotel?
Sorry, from TX and we know cheese and rotel.
I was going to try throwing in some pickled jalapenos but figured I’d wasted enough food.
Sorry for bad rating but you want the truth, right?
Karlynn says
I’d guess you didn’t use an aged cheddar, or even just a good one, it’s pretty impossible to have so little flavor with 2 cups of aged cheddar, tomatoes and juice, garlic, sour cream etc. This was bursting with flavor! It comes down to quality of ingredients for sure!