Chicken Spaghetti — The Casserole I Packed for Amber’s Cooler

Amber had the twins. May 14th, 2021, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Haley Grace Reeves and Madison Claire Reeves. 5 pounds 8 ounces and 5 pounds 3 ounces. Tiny, perfect, two of them. TWO. My sister, who tried for a year and a half, who asked "why you and not me," who wanted this more than anything she's ever wanted — my sister is a mother. Twice over. In one day.

I drove to Chattanooga with all three kids. Four hours in the Altima (which still has the dent, which has now been there for four years, which is at this point a design feature). Mama rode with us. She sat in the back between Jayden and Elijah's car seats and told stories for four hours — stories about when Amber was a baby, when I was a baby, when Kevin was a baby. The Mitchell oral history, delivered between car seats on I-24 to a grandson who can't understand the words yet and a granddaughter who remembers every one.

The hospital room was chaos and joy. Amber in the bed, exhausted, glowing, holding one baby while Darren held the other, the two of them looking like people who have just been hit by the most beautiful truck in the world. I held Haley. She was so small. So impossibly, terrifyingly small. Five pounds of person. Five pounds of Mitchell. Five pounds of the baby my sister prayed for, tried for, cried for, and got — doubled. The universe owed Amber a baby and paid with interest.

Mama held both twins at once. Both of them, one in each arm, and she looked at me and said: "Five grandbabies now. I'm going to need a bigger apartment." Five. Chloe, Jayden, Elijah, Haley, Madison. The roster. The Mitchell roster. And Kevin doesn't have kids yet (but he will — the milestones say Kaden comes in 2022). The family is multiplying. The family is doing what families do: getting bigger, getting louder, getting more complicated, requiring more chairs and more food and more love. The supply of chairs and food is finite. The supply of love is not.

I made food for Amber — of course I did. I left behind a cooler full of meals: chicken and rice casserole, a pot of soup, cornbread (Earline's, obviously), and a container of Chloe's lemon bars (Chloe insisted; she's the dessert department, remember). The cooler was the Mitchell new-baby gift: not flowers, not stuffed animals, FOOD. Because a woman who just had twins doesn't need flowers. She needs dinner. She needs dinner that she didn't have to make. She needs food in containers with her sister's name on the lids, stacked in a cooler, carried four hours, delivered with love. That's the Mitchell way. That's always been the Mitchell way.

The chicken and rice casserole almost made the cut, but when I was standing in my kitchen thinking about Amber — really thinking about her, about how long she waited, about Haley and Madison finally being here — I kept coming back to chicken spaghetti. It’s the one Mama used to make when things were hard and when things were worth celebrating, and this was both at once. It travels well, it reheats easy, and it’s the kind of food that tastes like somebody loves you, which is exactly what I needed to say when I couldn’t be there to say it in person every day.

Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 12 oz spaghetti, broken into thirds
• 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles (such as Ro-Tel), drained
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

1. Cook the chicken. Place chicken breasts in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook 18—20 minutes until cooked through. Remove chicken and reserve 1 cup of the cooking broth. Let chicken cool slightly, then shred with two forks.
2. Cook the spaghetti. Cook broken spaghetti in the reserved chicken broth plus salted water according to package directions until just al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. Saute the vegetables. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper and cook 5—6 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
4. Make the sauce. In a large mixing bowl, stir together cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, sour cream, drained Ro-Tel, salt, pepper, and garlic powder until combined.
5. Combine. Add the shredded chicken, cooked spaghetti, and sauteed vegetables to the sauce mixture. Stir until everything is well coated. Fold in 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheddar.
6. Assemble and bake. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread evenly and top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar. Cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is golden.
7. Cool and pack (or serve). Let rest 10 minutes before serving. To pack for a cooler, allow to cool completely, cover tightly, and label the lid. Reheats at 325°F covered for 20—25 minutes, or microwave individual portions 2—3 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 820mg