Day 99: BBQ Chicken and Ranch Spaghetti

Good Friday everyone! Finally, we are at the end of the week. There are a few things I've neglected to tell you about. First, is that I am excited to be involved with the IDOS Spring Convention in Farmington, Utah on Saturday. I will be cooking in the Taste of Dutch. I am cooking the Tomato Upside Down Cornbread, and maybe one or two other dishes. Honestly, I have never been to one of these kind of things. I have no idea what to expect, except that I will be hob nobbing (did I spell that right?) with some great people. Any tips or advice anyone?

Second, a reader named Carolyn has been making some youtube videos of the recipes she has tried. You can watch them here and here. Thanks to her for taking the time to not only try the recipes, but then to go to the work of making and posting videos!

Finally, I am going to start using my World Championship Cook Off cookbook. So a couple of times a month, at least, I will be trying some of the award winning recipes. I don't even pretend to be in the same league as the cook off participants, but it will help my DO skills to try their recipes. If you still haven't got a copy of the cookbook, you can order one here. The recipes look and taste amazing! Since I'm working on yeast breads, I'll start with some of the bread recipes, so stay tuned!

My Thursday's are terribly busy, so we always have quick meals. This one is ridiculously easy. the combination of ingredients is kind of weird, but it was good. It would be a super easy camping meal. I got this recipe at Picky Palate.

BBQ Shredded Chicken and Ranch Spaghetti

10" dutch oven

1 lb. thin spaghetti

4 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 large red onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 Tbs. dry ranch dressing mix

3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I didn't have any of these)

Shredded BBQ chicken (I used cooked shredded chicken mixed with BBQ sauce)

In your dutch oven, cook the noodles according to package directions, drain and set aside. In the same DO, add the olive oil and onions and saute until softened and golden. Add the cooked spaghetti to the onions; mix in dry ranch dressing seasoning and cilantro leaves. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Top spaghetti with BBQ chicken.

I tried this several different ways. I tried it with the dry ranch dressing, which was good. I also tried it with bottled ranch dressing. I only used a little bit, because you want it to barely coat the noodles to add just a bit of flavor. You don't want it saucy. I actually liked it better because the pasta stayed more moist. You could also add bottled ranch dressing to your BBQ sauce to make it even easier for camping. For that matter, you could use that Lloyd's BBQ chicken that you can buy in tubs at the store. I also topped ours with some mozzarella cheese.

The Finished Product

The Review

This would be a great camping meal and a great busy night meal. It didn't "wow"me, but even my hubby said it was good, and that's a pretty good recommendation because he is picky. This will be going camping with us this summer. Grade B.