Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti: a Southern thing?

Cafe Society
1

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a link in an email, to a recipe for Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti.

Basically, it goes like this:
You season a whole chicken or skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces, throw in some savory veggies (I used onion and celery), and some water, and more or less stew the chicken. When the chicken is cooked thoroughly, you remove the chicken and set it aside.

When the chicken is cool enough to shred, you do so. Then bring what is left (a basic stock, more-or-less) back up to a boil. Boil a pound of spaghetti noodles in the stock, giving it a good chicken-y flavor.

Drain the spaghetti, and add a 1/2C of cream or Half and Half (I guess whole milk would do in a pinch), and a pound of cubed Velveeta. Add the spaghetti and the shredded chicken back to the pot, and stir it all around until the Velveeta is all melted and the sauce starts to thicken.

I made this for my family on Saturday. Since we were going to be gone all day, I actually made the chicken in the slow cooker, (plus it’s getting pretty hot here, and the slow cooker doesn’t heat up the kitchen all afternoon).

By golly, by the time I was done, I had something we all agreed was pretty darned tasty! Now, yeah, the Velveeta is considered a little low-brow by some; I guess I could have made a “real” cheese sauce by starting with a roux. But this was simple, and very tasty, and since I used Barilla Plus angel hair pasta, it was pretty darned high in protein, too, which is important for me!

But, at the top of the recipe, it mentioned that Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti is a ‘Southern thing’. I’ve never even heard of it before (though Googling for recipes brought up a lot of hits).

Any thoughts?

2

I have to say that the description made me slightly nauseated, but if you liked it, why the hell not?

3

I’m a Texan and a similar type of chicken spaghetti was my grandma’s “go to” dish for feeding lots of people.

4

Well, if the description made you queasy, I wouldn’t recommend serving it for dinner any time soon in your house! :wink:

5

I’ve never had anything like this with chicken (nor have I ever tasted velveeta), but I think it sounds like an interesting variation on basic carbonara/cream+meat pasta that probably tastes very nice. Though I have to watch my cream+chicken intake; for some reason, really fatty chicken dishes sometimes upset my stomach.

6

It does sound like a Americanized (not necessarily Southern) version of a classic Italian dish, like carbonara or cacio e pepe. Cacio e pepe is so simple too - just boil pasta, drain it (reserving half a cup of the pasta liquid) and then put it back in the pot along with a couple tablespoons of butter, some grated pecorino romano cheese and some pepper. Mix until everything’s melted, using the reserved liquid if you need it. I add chicken to my husband’s portion because he usually wants meat (I just buy one of the grocery store rotisserie chickens on sale, shred the meat and freeze it - works great for this kind of stuff).

When I think of a Southern pasta recipe, the first thing that always comes to mind for me is BBQ Spaghetti. I’m a little afraid to try that, but I’ve heard it’s popular at the Neely’s restaurant, so someone’s liking it.

7

Velveeta is hard to describe. It has an “American cheese” type flavor, but is very creamy, and melts extremely well without getting grainy, separating, etc. It does come in 2% (that is, it’s made with low-fat milk instead of whole), and I didn’t put the chicken skin in the dish itself. If I were very afraid of the fat, though, maybe I’d just stew some skinless chicken thighs. But that’s just me. :slight_smile:

8

Feeling a bit out of sorts today is probably why. Too much sun and work yesterday in the yard left me with ocular migraines and exhaustion. Why do I never learn?

9

Hey, knock wood, but I’ve never had a migraine! (Don’t feel too envious, though, as I grown kidney stones like a motherfucker). However, my middle daughter gets them. They are ghastly, and you have my sympathies!

10

My good friend makes this for us every year during the Holidays when we visit her. She lives in rural Alabama and I had never had it before nor had the Hub who is Italian-American. I’d also never had Velveeta before prior to this dish. I’ve now had it annually for about the past 5 years. My friend calls the dish “Lickity-Split.”

11

Northerner here. Never heard of it or anything like it. Sounds yummy, though, and I just might try it.

12

I notice that when I google Chicken Spaghetti, that many of the recipes often include Rotel- Velveeta-Rotel Chicken Spaghetti. Now, Ro-tel is really disproportionately big in the South and their classic Velveeta and Ro-tel dip is really huge. Based on that, I’m going with the Ro-tel connection for this particular chicken spaghetti recipe.

Also, this classic back of the can Ro-tel classic recipe for Ro-tel King Ranch Chickenlooks very similar and may be the origin… just add spaghetti instead of tortillas.

13

[Sheldon cooper voice] Now that’s I-Talian[/scv]

14

Southerner here- it’s nothing I’ve heard of. I’d try it though; I love Chicken Alfredo and Chicken Carbonara.

15

Born and raised in the South, and I’ve never heard of anything like this being Southern.

16

As an educated guess, tetrazzini is probably the Grandfather of this dish. I’m thinking this particular Southern Cheezy Chicken Spaghetti recipe was probably spawned in the Campbell’s Kitchen, originally as Chicken or Turkey Tetrazzini out iof a free cookbook or back of the can, and it went to the trailer park and mated with rotel and velveeta, and this is its bastard child.

17

I grew up in WV but I’d never had this dish (known around here as “chicken spaghetti”) until I moved to this part of Ohio, which borders on Amish country. The little old ladies that cooked lunch for Rotary used to serve it regularly. I like it quite a bit.

18

Let’s see:
Tettrazini invented on East or West Coast (disputed) circa 1910
Velveeta starts with Kraft in 1927
Cream of Mushroom comes out in 1934
Campbell’s starts their Casserole campaign in 1941 (Ro-tel starts around the same time.)
Cream of Chicken comes out in 1947
Processed food Casseroles hit their height of popularity and really took off in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

19

certainly sounds a bit unorthodox to this Mid-westerner’s ears, but doesn’t sound bad.

I might just try it.

20

The southern version is the OP rolled into cutlet sized chunks, dipped in flour and buttermilk batter and fried.