My husband smoked a dozen chicken breasts for me the Saturday evening before Mother’s Day. I was having my son and his family over, along with my darling mom and dad, and my plans for those birds went beyond our Mother’s Day meal. I call it batch cooking. I’ve written about it before, but one of my favorite kitchen hacks is to prepare an abundance of one item and repurpose it. For instance, I served a Mexican feast Sunday with quesadillas, a green salad, and one of my go-to dip and chips. Today, a portion of that smoked chicken will show up in my Chicken Spaghetti with Italian Dressing and Black Olives. Let me walk you through this one.

“Chicken Spaghetti with Italian Dressing and Black Olives”

1 purple onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional if your group doesn’t prefer the strong flavor of celery)
1 small box carton cherry tomatoes
1 small can sliced black olives
1 pint fresh mushrooms
1 pk. Italian dressing
1/2 bottle Italian dressing
Rotisserie chicken, pulled into bite-size pieces
1 package vermicelli, cooked (You could substitute whatever pasta you have on hand)

I’ve gotten us started already by preparing 16 ounces of vermicelli. I drained it and set it to the side. I also chopped up and sautéed a purple onion and a stalk of celery in a couple tablespoons of butter. When they were almost clear, I added my sliced mushrooms and cooked it another couple minutes.

While the veggies were cooking and the pasta were cooking, I pulled apart some of my chicken into bite-size pieces. (You can always take a short cut and pick up a Rotisserie chicken, fresh from the grocery store, if you haven’t grilled or smoked the meat!) We’re going to put all of this in a nice sized serving bowl and toss it with a package of Italian dressing and Italian dressing to taste. We’ll add our tomatoes, a small can of sliced black olives and some chopped green onions and give it all a good toss. By the way, I didn’t have cherry tomatoes on hand today, so I subbed in some fire-roasted tomatoes from a can and it was delicious. Feel free to experiment in your own kitchen. That’s the fun of it! Now, season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese! Yum! (By the way, I don’t know who I’m kidding with these finished pics?! We top with tons more shaved Parmesan:)