Pioneer Woman and Chicken Spaghetti

Tonight I made the Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti for dinner. Oh my, was it delicious! This was not my first time to make chicken spaghetti, oh no. I volunteered for years at our Texas church's youth camp working in the kitchen. Chicken spaghetti was one of the favorite meals of the week. It happens to be one of my oldest son's favorite recipes.
P-Dub's version is delicious though. However, I did have to omit the cayenne pepper and bell peppers. Alex would never put anything in his mouth remotely spicey and I just don't do bell peppers. They don't like me. Don't ask, you don't want to know.
I did make another significant change to her recipe. Instead of boiling the chicken, I roasted it. I'm a huge food network geek and I love the Barefoot Contessa. Can I just say that I would love to live her life? I mean, let's face it. She lives in the Hamptons, has famous friends, and her husband works out of town part of the week and comes home on the weekends. How fabulous is that?
 Anyway, I digress. Ina Garten says never boil your chicken, roast it. I absolutely have lived by this rule since seeing this on TV. I roast chicken for casseroles, chicken salad and anything else I need a cooked chicken for. It's easy enough and it's oh so moist and delicious.
Start out with your bone in, skin on chicken breasts. Put them on your oldest most favored baking sheet like this.

As you can see, I've added some olive oil, salt and pepper. Easy peasy, right? Put those bad boys in the oven at 350 degrees until they're done. I don't know how long it takes, I wait until I can smell them. I check them then and pull them out.

Beautiful, aren't they?  Oh, and by the way, it's so much tastier if you use an old, well used baking sheet like this one. I've had it since my wedding shower. My FIRST wedding. (27 years ago. Yes, I was a baby)

Next, put a warm blankie (aluminum foil) over them and let them rest. I personally perform better after a little nap, so why wouldn't the chicken need one?

After they have rested and cooled, shred them. Or chop them. Whatever you prefer.

This is by far the best way to make a juicy chicken for any recipe.

After shredding, I put their little carcasses and these yummy juices and bits into a stock pot and made my stock. I used that to cook my pasta.

See all that chicken fat goodness? It does a body good. Well, it does my soul good. My body..not so much probably.
I regret to tell you that this is the last photo I took. I would've taken one of the finished chicken spaghetti but my family was starving and scarfed it down. It wasn't pretty.
I served it with garlic bread and steamed broccoli. The broccoli makes up for the cream of mushroom and chicken fat..right?
Now the dishwasher is humming. My boy is doing homework. My husband is either checking homework or has crawled into his study to geek on his own. My house is quiet and it's my favorite time. I think I'll turn on some mindless TV.
Check in tomorrow when I announce a giveaway! Yes, I've been offered an opportunity to give away a great prize. You don't want to miss it!