Joanna Gaines' Baked Spaghetti Is Even Better With One Cheese Tip

America loves downhome "Fixer Upper" star and interior designer Joanna Gaines, whose humble Instagram monikers are "OG homebody" and "shopkeeper at heart." She's a reality TV superstar by any reckoning, but you may not realize she's also a cookbook author. Through her popular "Magnolia" blog, Gaines devotes an entire section to cooking. Under the "Magnolia Table" brand, she states a belief that connections and life's best moments unfold in home kitchens. We agree, which is why we're exploring a specific recipe from the "Magnolia Table" cookbook: It's the Joanna Gaines Chicken Spaghetti that appears in a section very appropriately called Comfort Food. 

It is often referred to among home chefs as simply "baked spaghetti," an unofficial pasta category where spaghetti cooks in the oven rather than on a cooktop. In Gaines' version, it's a classic, cozy, casserole-style dish made with spaghetti, tender chicken, sauteed veggies, and a rich cream-and-cheese sauce, all baked until warm, bubbly, and golden. It is a creamy, dreamy, and cheesy delight for sure — but some folks believe the "cheesy" part could be even better with a few tweaks. The recipe calls for three cheeses: grated white cheddar, a block of cream cheese, and a small amount of processed cheese like Velveeta. With a willingness to slightly step outside the lines, you can bring more complex flavor profiles and textures to the plate. The trick is to augment or swap out some of the cheeses for ones like Gruyère, parmesan, or other melty options. 

The original Joanna Gaines chicken spaghetti recipe gets a lot of love for easy dishing when hosting guests while still feeling homey enough for weeknight family meals. There's no traditional red spaghetti sauce involved, just a white sauce built in the stovetop pan using the three cheeses, heavy cream, milk, chicken broth, salt, and black pepper. If you want to lean even harder into the cheese factor, here are some options to make this dish soar. Try using the original base — white cheddar plus a little processed cheese and cream cheese — as a jumping-off point before mixing things up. Experiment with pairing cheddar and Gruyère for nutty complexity; add an extra edge with a sprinkle of parmesan; or fold in fontina cheese for ultimate meltability. In the recipe headnote, Gaines suggests serving it with green beans or a romaine salad with buttermilk ranch and skillet croutons.

Beyond cheesey tweaks, Gaines offers a fun idea for visual appeal and easy serving: Instead of just dumping everything into the pan to bake, she suggests using tongs to twirl the spaghetti into little nests as you place it in the dish, then topping those mounds with the sauce. That creates attractive spirals in the baked spaghetti before topping with a final cup of grated cheddar. Though Joanna Gaines rules the baked spaghetti game, other versions of this popular pasta dish could be adapted with similar approaches, including our easy baked spaghetti.