Chicken Spaghetti

Just before I left for England I wrote a post about The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook and how I just HAD to have it! And then I wrote a post that I had indeed ordered the cookbook and I'd also tried making her yummy salsa from her cooking website. The cookbook arrived just before I left for England and I got a chance to browse through it but that was all. I have to just say again that (in my humble opinion) EVERY cookbook should be like this! It truly is beautiful. OK, not every cookbook should (or would need to) have pictures of horses or cows or cowboys or cow-kids for that matter, but all that aside ALL cookbooks should have step by step pictures of the dishes you're gonna make :-) That's what I love about Ree's book. I turn the pages and I just want to try each and every recipe.

So, last weekend I tried my very first recipe with Ree. I decided to make her Chicken Spaghetti. I was intrigued that this is the only 'casserole' Marlboro Man will eat - I wondered how good it could really be? You can find the recipe HERE on Ree's cooking site.

(and just for the record, you'll find much nicer photos at that link too)... but here's a few of mine: some of the ingredients...

everything is basically thrown together...

poured in to a dish with more cheese added on top... and popped in to the oven,

and here it is right out of the oven...

and I tried my best to get a good close up 'yummy' shot...

Verdict: I'm going to give this dish 7 out of 10! Overall it is very tasty, the amounts of seasoning and liquid were fine for me, I didn't have to add any more. I did make a couple of changes, first being I didn't have a fryer chicken, I used just two large chicken breasts that I had defrosted the day before, I boiled these in water and then just shredded them. I didn't use the 'stock' from this but opened a can of chicken broth and used that instead. The only thing I would change if I made this again (and I'm sure I will, it makes a great easy dish and would be nice with a crispy green salad and fresh bread) is I would saute the onion and bell pepper. PW doesn't say to do so, but to me the onion just wasn't cooked enough after 45 minutes, and I found the onion a little too over-powering. In saying that, we had more of this heated up on Sunday afternoon and the onion taste was a little less strong then, but I'd still like to cook them first next time just to taste the difference. A little more cheese wouldn't come amiss either!

Oh, and hubby's verdict? 8/10 :-)

I'm linking this post to Foodie Fans of PW for their recipe round-up #8