So - I really want to try this recipe sometime next week. The only problem is - she handles RAW CHICKEN. And there are pictures. Have I mentioned before that I have an intense phobia of raw meat? Well…I DO. SEVERELY. I think it comes from being a vegetarian for almost a decade and never touching the stuff, but I hate, hate, hate it. When I take a roast out to cook, I do it with tongs. When I bake chicken breasts, I remove them from the tray with a fork. I don’t ever cook with raw ground beef because it’s almost impossible to do so without touching the stuff. I have to be able to handle the meat with something other than my hands and only for a few seconds. Or I’ll die. Or something like that.
You have to understand a few things about me to really appreciate how freakin’ ridiculous this is. I am not a germaphobe. As a matter of fact, I am probably close to the opposite. I don’t panic when kids sneeze around me and I don’t forbid people from coming over to my home if they’re sick. I’ve always just thought that sicknesses will come or they won’t, me stressing out about it doesn’t help. I’m sure many would consider me quite disgusting, but contrary to this last week, I really don’t get sick often. I’ve never even had the flu and I usually get rid of colds pretty quickly. I just don’t freak out about germs. At all.
I’m also quite gross. I sometimes skip a day of showering (or a week) and I never use shampoo on my hair. I don’t wear makeup and rarely style. I play in the creek at the park and kinda like an excuse to get muddy. I’ll wear clothes with stains on them and socks with holes in them. I’m not a neat-freak in the slightest.
(Wait. Where is everyone going?)
In other words - fearing raw meat fits with no other parts of my personality. At all.
Anyway - my question is - Can I bake the chicken in that recipe first? Then cut up the pieces to put in the casserole? Please? If I can, then how do I adjust the recipe from there? Because not only am I a total chicken (HA! I crack myself up!) about handling raw meat, I’m also an idiot who doesn’t understand cooking. Thanks!
You can skip that whole chicken rinsing step. As long as you completely cook the chicken, all the nasties will die. I recently read that you shouldn’t rinse the chicken, because all that germ-ridden splashing water will actually spread the germs around.
I almost always precook chicken before combining it with other ingredients. Idon’t see why it couldn’t be done here. And the recipe sounds delicious.
I see two options. 1) buy an already roasted chicken, and then just cook the spaghetti in store bought chicken broth. Then you are picking meat off of an already cooked chicken. 2) Bake chicken breasts, or whatever type of meat you like, cut it up, and do the same as above for the spaghetti.
I made this recipe awhile ago using boneless skinless chicken breasts. I have a thing about chicken with bones in it. Eww! So, yes, you can totally do this. Don’t bake it first, just use your tongs or fork and take the chicken breasts and stick them in the pot of boiling water. When they are done cooking, maybe 30 minutes, take the chicken breasts out and shred them with two forks! Totally easy and you don’t even have to touch the COOKED chicken.
I say you get LilZ or MrZ to cut up the chicken for you! Why can’t they help out with icky raw chicken cutting?
OH, also! You could buy a rotisserie chicken from your grocer’s deli and then pull the meat off the already cooked chicken! That way you’ll get dark meat as well, if thats your thing.
I made this one a little while ago, too - SO YUMMY. We arent’ dark meat dans in our hosue though, so I just roasted some bonlesss skinless breasts then cubed them and liek other people suggested cooked the spagetti in a 50/50 store bought stock/water mix.
Why not just use tongs to hold the chicken while you rinse it and then put it in the pot?
Gloves, wear some kitchen gloves or such… or make the boys cut it up while its raw and BTW I have the same phobia or yuckiness factor of touching raw meat…. especially chicken.
Will your butcher cut up the chicken first? I have had the butcher bring out meat from the back and I am wondering how nice they really are. Or can you purchase pre-cut chicken?
Yeah I’ve made this recipe several times and I do my chicken different each time. Sometimes I cook a whole chicken in a crock pot all day. Sometimes I just boil some breasts for 20 mins. Sometimes I boil both breasts AND thighs together.
I wouldn’t bake the chicken first though. Boil it. It won’t dry out as bad. And don’t be afraid to mix dark and white meat together.
I hate handling raw meat. (This is the main reason why I became a vegetarian.) However, holidays and whatnot, I have to. Kitchen gloves are your best friends.
Use disposable gloves!
Easy solution. Buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store, remove the meat from the bones and boil the inedible parts in the boiling water for a few minutes, then remove (or you can use chicken broth, whichever to get the chicken flavoring).
Another easy one my mom used to do when we were kids…
Boil a whole chicken (no rinsing required) in a pot of water with some carrots, celery and bay leaves, stirring occasionally to break apart. When the chicken is falling off of the bone (45-60 minutes usually) remove from the pot with a strainer. Add a bag of Egg Noodles. We’d nosh on plain old bowls of egg noodles for dinner the first night (sometimes with a side of sliced fresh tomato from the garden) and the chicken was used for whatever dish she felt like.
Good luck!
I make a pretty similar chicken spaghetti recipe, and cooking the noodles in the chicken broth makes it extra yummy and delicious. However, I do it a little differently because although I don’t mind handling red meat??? I do NOT like handling raw chicken. It is really gross. I throw breasts chicken in the pot of water with some chopped celery and onion to boil and then don’t touch them until they are fully cooked. Email me if you want more details about the recipe.
(Also? I don’t think I touched raw chicken the entire time I was pregnant with my son. We ate a lot of pancakes.)
Canned chicken works good too, already cooked and cut up!
Rubber gloves!
I have made this a couple of times…use a premade rotisserie chicken (as others have pointed out). At our local grocery, they are normally on sale after 5:00pm…
Oh go ahead and make this recipe but use frozen chicken breasts. Take them from the freezer to the pan without touching them
Don’t you love her recipes? Her blackberry cobbler, #1, has become a staple in my house and at potlucks, though I use blueberries.
I would use a rotisserie chicken for the chicken, and better than bullion to boil the noodles in.
Go with gloves! I hate HATE touching raw meat. I’m not phobic but it’s just, well, icky! I buy a package of 100 ct vinyl gloves at either BJs or Home Depot and use those ALL the time. Painting? Grab some gloves. Icky meat? GRAB the gloves.
Okay - to add more clarification to my phobia - I kinda don’t think gloves would help because it’s the texture through the gloves, and the sight, and the smell, and then…
(OMG. I’m so lame.)
And I kinda don’t like messing with even cooked meat on bones. So the chicken breasts are a good idea since that’s all I tend to cook anyway.
(OMG. I’m so lame.)
I’m exactly like you; I don’t shower, I love playing in the dirt, I don’t mind being around sick people, I don’t wear make-up or style, and I don’t use shampoo on the curly hair, but the meat? I HATE raw meat! When I do have to handle it I use gloves. The gloves are my most used tool in the kitchen.
I would throw boneless frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot, cook all day. Then dump the broth into a big pot & proceed with the rest of the recipe.
Tongs for putting frozen chicken into the crockpot, forks to shred it later. No real touching of anything, with the right kitchen utensils!
Do what I do! Tell your husband to come in the kitchen and help you for a moment. Boys like knives!
(Ground beef or boneless breasts is no problem for me, but I don’t like cooking whole chickens or joints with bones or anything where it looks like dead animal.)
Totally not the point of the post but you can cook ground beef without touching it if you had touching raw meat enough you get creative.
Cut the plastic with a knife around 3 sides then dump the meat into a skillet (the plastic will stay attached to the packaging since you only cut 3 sides.
I hate raw meat. I make my husband deal with it a lot of the time.
I think there are some great suggestions there…I don’t know if it would work taste wise, but there is some cut up chicken from like Tyson that is seasoned and cooked and you can just throw on a salad or stir fry or whatever (I use it for quesadillas) . The flavoring may throw the whole thing off, but then there are no picking off of bones and what not.
It sounds super yummy. I may try it, however my housemate is a veggie person and I would have a TON of it to eat.
Hey Zoot, I was just looking at the recipe, and PDub said this:
Also, if you have cooked chicken from another source (leftovers, etc), that’s fine too; just be sure to add a small amount of canned chicken broth to the water before you boil the spaghetti. (Not too much, though, or the dish will be too salty.)
So there ya go
Just buy the pre-cooked already cubed chicken breast at the grocery store. You could even cut it if you want smaller chunks since it is already cooked. I use it in place of having to cook chicken and remove it from bone all the time. Not to mention it saves so much time and is super cheap!
I almost died when I broke my leg and couldn’t shower everyday. I had to have my cast replaced twice because I couldn’t stand being filthy. I hate the odor people take on when they aren’t clean. It’s so weird how we’re all different in what we can stand! I’m so with you on the raw meat. Sickening. The worst thing about ground beef isn’t getting it out of the pack without touching it, I mastered that, it’s the smell when it first starts cooking. I almost puke if I have to do it. I agree with you on using breasts of chicken. Put em in whole with tongs and proceed. Shred them once they’re cooked. Yuk on rotisserie and anything cooked with bones in it. Auggh.
You guys are so funny about touching the meat :)! I think the rotisserie thing is the way to go.
That recipe looks VERY similar to one my aunt pulled off of food network called “Cheesy chicken spaghetti.” When I make that recipe, I boil the boneless, skinless, chicken breasts and then shred the chicken with a fork — no touching necessary! And I would highly recommend the recipe. If it’s anything like the one I got from my aunt (which, it seems to be) then it is absolutely delicious.
My sister in law can’t touch raw meat either. She just wears gloves instead. You know, the doctor’s gloves, but the non-powder kind.
While I love and adore the Pioneer Woman, I disagree with the whole chicken rinsing part. Unless I’m roasting a whole chicken and then I rinse out the inside.
And I wear rubber gloves (the surgical kind) while I do it. They’re $10 for 200 at costco (or some stupidly low price like that).
I’ve never rinsed the chicken before cooking it in recipes like this. I generally peel off the plastic off the packaging and let it fall into the water (but not always without splashing myself). Or as many others have suggested buy a pre-roasted chicken.
I have the biggest fear/phobia/weirdness about meat too. So much, that I deal w/ most of my meat in the frozen form. Then it doesn’t seem so icky.
What I do? Is take the frozen, skineless, boneless chicken from the bag and grab it with two fingers without looking at it directly. (Why? Do I fear it has death rays or something? Somehow it is just easier if I don’t look!) And then I throw it on a plate and shove it in the microwave. I then defrost for 15-20 minutes. And then I cook it in the microwave for 7-9 minutes. And then it is cooked and I can almost (almost!) handle it with a fork and knive to cut it up.
I 100% pre-cook my chicken this way for everything my family eats. The thought of cutting up raw chicken gives me hives.
2 things: First, you can just not wash the chicken first. It’s really not that important of a step.
Second, this is sooooo yummy that it’s worth it. Even if you have to have LilZ do it for you. Try it. Really, I made the half recipe and still ate it for lunch for days.
My thought order out. Just kiddin. Buy the chicken breast cook them in tin foil in the oven. That way you can use the drippings to help flavor the recipe. Just wrap them up in tin foil and put them in a pyrex. Place the pyrex in the oven for about 1 hour at 350. When done use a fork to cut up.
I agree… boil, shred and move on
I was at work today dying to answer this question, but I couldn’t because of tight, tight security, no personal Internet use blah blah blah. But, your commenters have said it all. I second the idea of the store-bought rotisserie chicken and asking Lil or MrZ to help you out. I don’t like to stir cookie dough (because I’m lazy), so I get my husband to stir it. It’s the least he can do, since the cookies are usually because he’s begging for them. Make ‘em work for their dinner, Zoot ; )
buy a rotisserie chciken; I only breifly looked, but I think you cook the chicken and then put it in the casserole.. so if you can’t stand the raw stuff, buy a cooked one
I don’t see why you couldn’t just buy pre-cooked, pre-sliced chicken and cut it up and then just add the can of chicken broth to the spaghetti water?
(I’m sorry if that was stated above, I didn’t read through all the comments!) If you really want to cook your chicken, I agree that you should poach or boil it - that way it won’t dry out, but really I’d just go with the pre-cooked, pre-sliced variety -so much easier!
Zoot, do you get shredded chicken in packets? If so, that will solve your problem. If not, try making this with tofu
I know i know.. but it will taste good too.
My mother used to tell me, “Just grab it and plop in the pan.” So enticing, lemme tell ya.
I have no advice. I can barely cook, myself!
I did this recipe last night b/c I didn’t like what I was going to do, so glad you had it posted!!
I used 2 chicken breast, cubed it and browned it. For the pasta I just threw in a bouillon cube to the water. I also didn’t have cheddar so I used a Italian mix cheese instead. It turned out great….so, like everyone suggested….have a Rottiserie one night, then use the rest for this recipe!!
Hey, um, no chicken advice but I wanted to tell you: I don’t shower every day either!! Usually it’s every other day or even every 2 days sometimes…And I DON’T wear make up and do nothing with my (curly/wavy) hair besides wash/condition/comb it in the shower and brush or comb it a little when out. No blow drying, no product besides a TEENSY bit to help with frizzies, no styling tools. In fact, esp. on non-shower days, it usually ends up in a knotted bun.
You’re not alone!! AND, not gross! So there.
I am exactly the same way! If I cook chicken I cannot eat it. I actually don’t even try to cook it anymore. If I see a recipe that calls for cutting or touching raw chicken in any way I don’t cook it. It makes me sick just thinking about it. We get a roasted chicken at the grocery store about once a week. I used to be able to eat a little of that if my husband pulled it off the bones. But now I can’t even do that. I sit at the table gagging while he and our son eat it. I’m sure that’s fun for them!
I’m not reading the 40+ comments before me, so forgive me if I repeat. If it bothers you that much spend the extra money, which really won’t be all that much, and buy a rotisserie chicken from the deli section of the grocery store. It is already cooked and seasoned. Then when you cook the spaghetti use a 50/50 mixture of chicken stock/broth and water. Then do everything else the same. You will still get the flavored pasta and you don’t have to handle raw meat. Good luck!
I am so with you on that, I cannot/will not debone a chicken. I am a white mean only chicken person and prefer to cook the chicken and then add it, rather I boil the chicken breasts or pan fry chicken strips - boneless skinless white meat!
I wonder if you could substitute a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery. You would still have to pull the meat, but it wouldn’t be raw. I’m with you on the touching the raw meat - i’m pregnant & I can barely cook meat, but touch the stuff? ekkkk.
Blah! Her food is nasty. That’s not cooking that slopping together things. My suggestion is Giada or the barefoot contessa or even Fanny Farmer. They’re easy to follow recipes and they’re yummy too.
Late to the party on this post, but I just found your blog via Google Reader’s top recommendations. Something to consider for future culinary endeavors. I shop at Publix, but most any grocery store will do the same. I don’t have any phobias about handling raw meat, but I hate wasting my precious time cutting it up. So whenever I am doing my shopping and will be running around the store anyway, I stop by the meat counter first, pick out a nice roast (or boneless chicken breasts and boneless thighs in your case) and have the butcher/meat counter guy cut it up into bite sized pieces. They re-package it with the original price sticker, so I don’t even have to pay any extra for it. Then, when you get home, you can just dump the already chunked meat into whatever pot/pan you’re using without having to touch it directly. Then you can focus on whatever other prep your recipe requires…or the kids’ homework…or whatever reality tv show is on.
Anyway…must go check out more of your blog. See you around!
I have the same problem with raw chicken…the texture, the sight, the smell, it’s just all too much. My gag reflex kicks in just thinking about it. Oddly enough, I don’t really mind raw red meat, though.
I just either buy rotisserie chicken, like others have suggested, or have my husband do the cutting up work.
Fill us in on how that casserole turns out–I’ve been dying to try it, but too lazy to cook.
gloves! meat is gross. i was a vegetarian when i was little for a very short time and i still get nauseated when i watch my family eat steaks. i used to get in trouble when i’d refuse to touch uncooked meat to help with dinner.