On October 27, 1864, Kitchen was elected to the 3rd and 4th West Virginia State Senate, serving two sessions in 1865 and 1866. In 1866, Kitchen was elected from West Virginia's 2nd District to the United States House of Representatives, serving in the 40th United States Congress from 1867 to 1869. Afterward, he resumed engagements in agricultural pursuits and stock raising and became president of the Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan Counties, serving from 1869 to 1875. Kitchen was master of the West Virginia State Grange from 1873 to 1879. In October 1878, Kitchen was elected as a Greenback Party candidate to the 14th West Virginia House of Delegates, which convened from January through March 1879. Kitchen was president of the Berkeley County, West Virginia court from 1880 to 1895.