Baked Chicken Spaghetti Casserole is an easy family-friendly comfort food recipe. Tasty chicken and pasta casserole baked in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce.
Baked Spaghetti is one of our most loved kid-friendly casserole dinners. This creamy chicken spaghetti is another easy Italian-American Dish perfect for potlucks, weeknight dinners, and make-ahead freezer meals.
Baked Chicken Spaghetti is a quick and easy family-friendly casserole dish that is prepared and ready to serve in just one hour. It’s great for prepping ahead for potlucks or parties, all you need to do is pop it in the oven to bake the day you need to serve it. You can even make this Chicken Spaghetti in the slow cooker. However you make Baked Chicken Spaghetti, it’s sure be a new favorite go-to dinner recipe for busy nights!
This Baked Chicken Spaghetti recipe is made with real cheddar cheese, instead of processed cheese like Velveeta. It’s a semi-homemade recipe, using condensed chicken soup to save time to make an easy, creamy cheese sauce. You can substitute our Homemade Condensed Chicken Soup if you want to make this dish completely from scratch.
Serve Baked Chicken Spaghetti with quick sides like Roasted Broccoli and Garlic Bread (make it cheesy!) for an easy Italian dinner. Feed a crowd with by serving as side dish or doubling this Chicken Spaghetti recipe for potlucks or holiday parties. This Baked Chicken Spaghetti casserole is an easy go-to recipe for Thanksgiving leftovers like Baked Ham or Roast Turkey.
More Easy Italian Pasta Dishes
Make Ahead Baked Chicken Spaghetti
Prepare and assemble Chicken Spaghetti according to the recipe card up until the baking part.
Make-Ahead Refrigerator Instructions: Fill baking dish with pasta mixture. Cover casserole dish with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Refrigerate for up to 2 days. Remove plastic wrap and re-cover with foil to bake. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, then uncover and finish cooking for 10-15 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Make-Ahead Freezer Instructions: Line your baking dish with parchment paper before filling with pasta. Freeze until solid and use parchment to pop frozen pasta out. Place in an extra large freezer safe bag. Freeze up to 4 months. To cook, place pasta back into casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes, remove foil and cook another 10 minutes until heated through.
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Variations on Baked Chicken Spaghetti
- Meat: Instead of cooking the chicken the same night, use pre-cooked chicken like Rotisserie Chicken or canned chicken. Try last night’s leftover Taco Meat, ground beef, or shredded pork instead of chicken too!
- Pasta: You can use most other pastas instead of spaghetti. Thin noodle pastas like linguine or fettucinni pasta are great substitutes, but you can also use pastas like ziti, penne, or rotini pasta. Cook the pasta to just shy of al dente, about 1-2 minutes less than package instructions.
- Cheese: Use Velveeta cheese, American cheese, mozzarella cheese, Swiss cheese, or Monterey jack cheese in your cheese sauce. For an extra cheesy dish, top with shredded cheese and bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly and melted. Serve with shaved parmesan cheese.
- Tomato: For Baked Tomato Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti, add a can of Rotel tomatoes (or other diced tomatoes). You can use spicy or medium Rotel tomatoes to add heat. Try Rotel with lime and add Taco Seasoning to make this a Southwest Baked Chicken Spaghetti!
- Veggies: For a healthier casserole, add fresh or frozen veggies like red or green peppers, peas, mushrooms, onions, spinach, or corn. If you use fresh veggies like onions or bell peppers, sauté them first in olive oil for more flavor!
- Soup: You can use Cream of Mushroom Soup or Celery Soup instead of the chicken soup. Swap out the shredded cheese with 1 can of Cheddar Cheese Soup.
- Sauce: Make the sauce creamier with sour cream or mayonnaise added at the end, or use sour cream instead of cream cheese. Add seasonings like Italian seasoning or dried herbs, or use garlic powder in place of minced garlic.
Slow Cooker Chicken Spaghetti
- Spray your crockpot insert with cooking spray.
- Add the sauce ingredients: chicken soup, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and minced garlic to the pot and stir.
- Nestle chicken breasts in the sauce and cover slow cooker with lid.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours or until chicken is cooked through.
- During last 30 minute of cooking, prepare spaghetti pasta according to the package directions for al dente.
- Once chicken is cooked, remove and chop into bite sized pieces, or shred with forks.
- Return chicken to slow cooker and add spaghetti. Toss gently until well combined and serve.
- Optional: Top with 1 cup shredded cheese after spaghetti and chicken are mixed in. Cover with lid and cook on low until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.
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How to Store Chicken Spaghetti
- Serve: Chicken Spaghetti is best served fresh and hot from the oven. Keep at room temperature for up to 2 hours and cool before storing.
- Store: Once cooled, cover Chicken Spaghetti tightly with plastic wrap or transfer to an air tight container. Reheat in the oven or microwave, adding a little chicken broth if it has dried out.
- Freeze: Cover baking dish tightly with plastic wrap and aluminum foil before freezing Chicken Spaghetti for up to 4 months. Reheat from frozen if your pan is metal, or if baking dish is glass thaw in refrigerator first.
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti , cooked 1 minute shy of package instructions
- 10.75 ounces condensed chicken soup
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 2 cups cheddar cheese
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 chicken breasts , cooked and chopped
Instructions
- Cook pasta to al dente, just one minute shy of package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together chicken soup, chicken broth, cream cheese cheddar cheese, and minced garlic, stirring occasionally, until combined.
- Gently toss chicken, cooked pasta and sauce until well combined.
- Pour the chicken spaghetti mixture into the baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Bake for 20 minutes until top is slightly crispy.
Real good but only need half the pasta (half box) would be creamier!
Can you make it and then put it in the oven the next day?
Thanks
Certainly, just cover it in the fridge so that it doesn’t dry out before baking!
Very good recipe. I added a can of Rotel just because that sounded good. My husband said it was a keeper. Thanks!!
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Thanks for sharing, Sabrina.
This is really delicious. Added a little onion and chive cream cheese spread, along with the plain cream cheese . Wow, adds so much extra flavor ! Husband loved it ! You really knock it out of the park with your recipes !
Yummy additions!
This is one of the nicest chicken recipes I have ever made & I’m not usually keen on pasta
thank you for this recipe – yummy
You’re welcome, Janet. I’m glad you decided to give it a try.
Chicken spaghetti is one of our favorites!! It’s a nice change from regular spaghetti. Baking it gives that nice crust on top!
I’m so glad to hear it’s such a hit, Natalie.
Sabrina this is WONDERFUL!! I can’t say enough about this. SO SO delicious.
Thanks, Lisalia!
Yum! This is super delicious I could eat this for every meal!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the 5 stars, Betsy.