Tex Mex Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken spaghetti is a chicken casserole with 4 cheeses, Ro*Tel and homemade condensed soup. Make this Tex Mex recipe for pure comfort food!

Pasta is a favorite of just about everyone, and a rotisserie chicken is a busy person’s solution to “What should I make for dinner tonight?”.
When you combine those two things into a spaghetti casserole loaded with not one, but four types of cheese, it spells easy comfort food!

Take that dinner one step further, tossing in some Tex Mex flair and you’ve got yourself a winning dinner!

Tex Mex Chicken Spaghetti

As crazy delicious as this Tex Mex pasta dinner is, you should know that it is very rich, hearty, and filling. Be sure to come to the table with a big appetite. 😉

Ingredient notes and substitutes

• Cooked chicken– You’ll need 3 cups of shredded chicken, and the easiest way to prepare it is NOT to prepare it! Just buy a rotisserie chicken, remove the skin, and shred the meat. Either white, dark, or a combination of the two meats is fine.
  
  If you have leftover chicken you’re looking to use up, or you’d like to cook some fresh chicken breasts or thighs, that’s fine too! Just use boneless skinless chicken so your casserole doesn’t become greasy or take on the seasonings used on the skin.
  
• Spaghetti– To keep the bites manageable, I break the noodles into thirds. If you’d rather use a different pasta, any long noodle should be fine. I don’t think angel hair will hold up well, but thin spaghetti, fettuccine, lo mein or even a shaped pasta like rotini (corkscrew) or farfalle (bow tie) would be fantastic.
  
• Cheeses– In addition to cream cheese and shredded cheddar and Monterey jack, this amazing chicken spaghetti casserole also includes Velveeta cheese. Velveeta is sold in large blocks and during recipe testing, I found a full block to be a bit too much. 2/3rds of a block is about perfect, but use as much or as little as you’d like.
  
• Ro*Tel– This is a Tex Mex blend of diced tomatoes and green chilis. Depending on the store, it will either be near the regular diced tomatoes, or in the Mexican ingredient aisle.
  
• Condensed chicken soup– The idea behind this chicken spaghetti recipe is to keep things simple. If you don’t want to use canned condensed soup, I have a recipe for homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup that you could make. Just omit the mushrooms from the recipe.
  
• Ranch seasoning– Either buy a packet of dry ranch dressing mix or use my ranch seasoning recipe to make it yourself.

Making Tex Mex Pasta

If you’re using precooked chicken, this recipe comes together really quickly. To save even more time, it can be made ahead, so all you have to do is bake it when you get home. OR, you can prep it in a freezer-safe casserole dish and freeze it unbaked for up to 3 months.

It honestly couldn’t be any simpler! The chicken spaghetti takes 30 minutes to heat through when it’s not frozen. If you’re baking it frozen, it may take an extra 20 minutes or so.

What to serve with chicken spaghetti

As mentioned earlier, this Tex Mex chicken casserole is very rich and filling. If you’d like to serve something with it, choose lighter side dishes. Keep some veggies in the picture by serving some roasted vegetables or a Tex Mex side like spicy cilantro lime slaw.

Tex Mex Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken spaghetti is a chicken casserole with 4 cheeses, Rotel and homemade condensed soup. Make this Tex Mex recipe for pure comfort food!

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinners

Cuisine: Tex Mex

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 563kcal

Author: Kevin Is Cooking

Ingredients

• 2 lbs rotisserie chicken chopped (See Note 1)
• 1 lb spaghetti broken into thirds
• 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup 10.5-ounce cans
• 8 oz Velveeta cheese (See Note 2)
• 10 oz Ro*Tel Tomatoes
• 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp Ranch Seasoning
• 1 tsp chili seasoning
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded
• 1/2 cup Jack cheese shredded

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Season a 13×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
• Break the spaghetti into thirds. Then cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and set aside. Do not rinse.
• In a large pot, combine the 2 cans of condensed chicken soup, Velveeta cheese, Ro*tel with liquid (reserve a 1/4 cup to top casserole), cream cheese, milk, Ranch Seasoning and chili powder. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until the cheeses have melted.
• Add the cooked spaghetti and chicken. Stir to mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the top with the shredded cheddar and Jack cheeses and reserved Ro*Tel.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese has melted.

Notes

1. If not using rotisserie chicken that has been cooked: Place the chicken breasts in a large pot, cover with water. Cook uncovered over medium heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Don’t boil the chicken. Allow to cool, then chop into bite size pieces or shred using two forks.
2. I found using the 16 ounce block of Velveeta too rich (which is the typical amount in most versions of this), but feel free if you like.

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Nutrition

Calories: 563kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 74mg | Sodium: 1340mg | Potassium: 480mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1307IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 490mg | Iron: 2mg

Have you made this recipe? Let me know on InstagramTag @KevinIsCooking and hashtag me #keviniscooking!