Baked Chicken Spaghetti Recipe

A serving spoon is shown scooping a bit of the mixture.

5 — Votes 6 votes

Baked Chicken Spaghetti Recipe

This Baked Chicken Spaghetti is creamy, delicious, and incredibly family-friendly! Picture tender shredded chicken and pasta tossed with a delightful homemade cheese sauce, and then topped with more shredded cheese and buttery, crispy bread crumbs.

Prep Time5

Cook Time50

Total Time55

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: Servings

Author: Cassy Joy Garcia

Ingredients

12 ounces spaghetti
6 tablespoons butter, divided
½ yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
8 ounces cream cheese
10 ounces Rotel (canned tomatoes and chiles), drained
1½ cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded, divided
1½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
1½ teaspoons salt, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter to a large pot over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent.
While you're sautéing the garlic and onion, cook your spaghetti noodles al dente (to do this, subtract 3 minutes from the package instructions).
Add the chicken broth, milk, cream cheese, Rotel, half of the shredded Monterey jack cheese, half of the shredded cheddar cheese, and 1 teaspoon of salt to the pot with the garlic and onion. Stir until everything is melted.
Sprinkle the flour on top of the melted cheese sauce and whisk until smooth. Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom every minute or so.
Once the sauce has thickened, stir in the chicken.
Toss the bread crumbs with ¼ cup of melted butter and a ½ teaspoon of the salt.
Place the al dente noodles in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish, pour the chicken and cheese sauce over top and toss to combine. Spread the cheesy noodles out in an even layer, top with an even layer of the rest of the shredded cheese, and then an even layer of the buttery bread crumbs.
Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes and then broil for 3-4 minutes, until the bread crumbs are golden brown. Garnish with parsley, serve, and enjoy!

Notes

Make it gluten free - this recipe is really simple to make gluten free! Use a gluten free pasta (we used Barilla's gluten free spaghetti noodles) and gluten free panko bread crumbs (or crushed gluten free crackers). Keep in mind that if you're using gluten free noodles, they do take a little bit more babysitting than conventional wheat noodles. You'll want to toss them with olive oil as soon as you strain them, and continue to toss them around every couple of minutes before adding the cheese sauce to them in the casserole dish.
Use garlic powder and onion powder - if you don't have fresh onion or garlic (or just don't want to go through the trouble of chopping and mincing it), feel free to use onion and garlic powder instead. You'll need 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder and a 1/2 tablespoon of onion powder and will add them in with the cream cheese, milk, and other cheese sauce ingredients.
Use a different kind of pasta - while this recipe does have "spaghetti" in the title, know that you can absolutely use any type of pasta that you love/have on hand. Both short and long noodles will work great.

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