My Arch Nemesis!!!

I had been planning on making this chicken confetti spaghetti (haha, that rhymes) recipe since Tuesday. I kept putting it off because of different reasons. I finally made it last night. I should have known from the beginning it was a bad idea because of my issues with it since Tuesday. But nooooo, I decided to make it anyway. Let's just say I was not impressed. In fact, I hated it. Jeremy of course said it wasn't bad. I don't know if he was telling the truth (in all seriousness, he will eat just about anything) or if he was just being nice. But it doesn't matter because I will not make this again.

Now, I will admit I did not follow the recipe to the exact letter. But I refuse to think that was the issue. Instead I like Jeremy's philosophy: Your cooking wasn't bad, the recipe was just flawed! That works for me! Anyway, I'm going to post this recipe just in case someone else wants to try it. It may not actually be THAT bad; maybe the recipe just had it out for me because I'd been fighting with it since Tuesday. Maybe my "substitutions" ruined it. Maybe I just suck at cooking. You be the judge. Go ahead; try it. I dare you.

Chicken Confetti Spaghetti
Serves 6

Ingedients:
8 oz spaghetti

2 Tbsp butter

12 oz cooked, diced chicken - I'm not sure how much chicken I used. I mean, they sell chicken by the pound NOT by the ounce. And I'm sorry, but I'm no math wizard, so how was I supposed to know what constitutes 12 oz of chicken?!?

1 (4oz) jar diced pimentos (drained) - Ok, another modification. When I was reading the ingredients list at the store, I must have imagined the word "olive" in there because I opened my jar of olives with pimentos and then was like "Wait! It doesn't call for actual olives." That is when I shrugged and said "Oh Well" and threw in the diced olives. Whoops.

8 oz trinity mix (fresh diced onions, bell peppers, celery) - HAHAHA. Ok, I just now realized this said FRESH. I bought the frozen bag of "seasoning mix" from Publix (which does have onions, bell peppers, and celery) and used that. But when I was going to add it to the recipe I realized the bag was a 10 oz bag and instead of trying to figure out what 8 oz was out of the bag, I again shrugged and said "Oh Well!" and threw the entire bag in the mix!

1 (10.5 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup (I got this part right!!)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 (14 oz) can reduced-sodium chicken broth - yah, I have no clue how much I put in because you don't buy chicken broth in 14 oz cans!! So I guesstimated!

1 1/4 cups shredding sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Fill pot with water and bring to boil. Break pasta into 2-inch long pieces and stir into boiling water; boil 5 minutes or until partially tender.

2. Cut butter into small pieces while placing in medium bowl; set aside to soften. Combine in microwave safe bowl: chicken, pimentos, trinity mix, soup, salt, pepper, and broth until well blended. Cover and microwave on HIGH 2-3 minutes or until mixture is hot and vegetables begin to soften.

3. Drain pasta and stir into vegetable mixture. Transfer mixture evenly into 2 quart baking dish. I used a 2 1/2 quart and mine was almost to the very top. I don't know how they expect this to fit into only 2 quarts! Stir cheese and bread crumbs into butter. Mix with fingers until blended and crumbly; spread evenly over chicken mixture. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden and bubbly around edges. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

***Photos to come shortly!

UPDATE 3/6/09: Photos of the chicken confetti. I apologize for the second photo - I was having issues with my f/stop.