Chicken Cornetti

Every now and again, but rarely, do I find a recipe that becomes one of my repeat offenders, Chicken Cornetti is one of them.  I like to call it Chicken Cornketti though, sounds less uppity.

Behold the beauty!

Here is the recipe for the blind:

And here it is for the rest of us:

1 (4-lb.) stewing chicken cut up

4 cups (1-lb.) broken spaghetti

2 cups finely sliced celery

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 teaspoons paprika

2 to 3 12-oz. cans DEL MONTE Golden Whole Kernel Corn

1/2 to 1 cup stuffed or ripe olives

1/2 lb. pimiento cheese, cubed

Simmer chicken, covered, in boiling salted water (about 6 cups) until tender, about 2 to 3 hrs. Cool. Remove meat from bones; cut in large pieces. Measure broth; add enough hot water to make 6 cups liquid. Bring to boil; add spaghetti, chicken, celery, green pepper, onions, paprika. Cook 15 to 20 min. Add 1 can of the corn, the olives and cheese; cook 5 min. longer. Taste; add more salt if necessary. Serve wreathed with the rest of the Del Monte Corn, heated and seasoned, either on a hot platter or in the same utensil in which dish was cooked. Edge with thin slices of green pepper, if desired. Serves 10 to 12.

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Well?  Did you read it?!  You didn't did you?  Just getting started it says to boil a whole chicken for 3 hours, primarily to make broth for the noodles.  There is also a call for cubed pimiento cheese.  Nowadays it's only sold as a spread but back in the day it used to come in block form:

So you know I'm not going to follow this nonsense and I'm going to do this myyyy waaaay.

Here's how it goes down for me.  I plan this dish with leftovers following a baked chicken.  I bake a chicken for dinner on night one, saving the leftover meat along with the bones and the chicken drippings.  The next night I boil the bones with the cornketti noodles.  I think this is where the flavor magic really starts to happen.  I don't do green peppers or onions (just personal preference in our house) just chopped celery added in at this time.  After the noodles/celery are done, drain.  Add in with noodles the deboned previously cooked chicken, black olives, corn, paprika, favorite seasonings (Tony's!) and drippings from last nights baked chicken.  Mix together and warm over heat. For the cubed cheese I used cheddar and added it near the end of warming as to not melt it too much.   Now pick back up with the original recipe and "wreath your noodles" in canned corn and trim out with bell pepper.

This is some good eating!