"Chicken Tetrazzini"

"It smells good in here," my son said when he came in the kitchen this afternoon. "Whacha makin'?"

"Chicken tetrazzini."

"Oh, are you actually making it for us this time?"

Okay, it's true this is the dish I often make for families who have just had a new baby or have someone in the hospital or have lost a loved one. I can hand it off; they do nothing more then pop it in the oven and it's ready. And if they've been overloaded with food generosity it freezes beautifully. They can eat it when ever it's handy for them. Plus, it's tasty but not spicy...a safe dish for even the pickiest eaters (except maybe the mushrooms but they're super simple to pick out). At any rate it's not uncommon for my kids to walk in to the kitchen, smell the tetrazzini prep, get excited only to have me say, "it's not for you." I really should get in the habit of making double batches. But that, as they say, would make too much sense.
This time, though, it is for us.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use free-range organic)
3/4 pound spaghetti
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 lemon slice
4 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cup low salt chicken broth (plus several large cans or boxes extra for cooking pasta and chicken)
1 cup cream

1. Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels
2. Put in heavy pot with enough low salt chicken broth to cover. Bring broth to boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until there is no trace of pink in thickest part of breast.
3. Remove chicken from broth. Strain and reserve 2 1/2 cups broth for white sauce plus some extra for thinning during baking if needed. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and put in large bowl. Set aside.
4. Make white sauce. Melt butter in heavy sauce pan. Stir in butter and a couple of dashes of nutmeg. Once flour mixture bubbles, cook stirring constantly for three minutes.
Slowly add 2 1/2 cups chicken broth stirring constantly and 1 cup cream until thickened.
5. Pour over chicken and refrigerate or put bowl in an ice bath to cool quickly.
6. Cook pasta in low salt chicken broth. Pasta should be al dente (still slightly firm) or it will be mushy after baking. Put pasta in buttered casserole dish.
7. While pasta is cooking, saute mushrooms in butter with lemon slice. Put mushrooms on top of pasta in casserole dish.
8. Pour chicken and cream sauce over pasta and mushrooms.
9. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Add chicken broth if needed.


Here's the step by step pictoral guide:

Cook chicken breasts in low salt chicken broth. Bring broth to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Make sure that when you cut into the thickest part of the breast there is no pink.

While the chicken is cooking, butter the casserole dish. I use unsalted butter because it is less likely to burn than sweet butter. Please note that the spot on my hand is not an age spot. It is a freckle. I have had it since I was a child.

Cut a slice of lemon. Not sure why I put a shot of that in. Pretty sure you know how to do that. Probably because it was the only bright, pretty color in the whole recipe.

When the chicken's done, slice it into bite sized pieces. It's nice and juicy. I used to think I had to cook it for like 45 minutes and it was always dry and tough.

Put the bite sized chicken pieces in a large bowl.

Pour the chicken broth through a strainer and reserve 2 1/2 cups of it it to use in the white sauce (plus some extra to moisten if needed while baking). If that's too much trouble you could open another can of broth, but that would be kinda wasteful.


Melt the 4 Tbls. butter. Add the 4 Tbls. flour and a couple of dashes of nutmeg. )I like nutmeg in a white sauce, so I'm generous with it). Stir the roux (flour and butter mixture) bubbling for 3 minutes. (sorry forgot to get a shot of this step).

Slowly add the 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, stirring constantly and the 1 cup cream until thickened.

Pour the white sauce over the chicken.

Put the chicken and white sauce in the refrigerator. I put mine in the sink with some ice water because I want it to cool fast. That's because I'm not going to bake mine until tomorrow. If I put the cream sauce on the pasta while it's warm, the pasta will continue cooking and get too mushy...gross.

While sauce is cooling, sautee those mushrooms in butter with the lemon slice.

Also, cook the pasta in low salt chicken broth (you can use part broth/part water).

Cook the pasta al dente, which literally means with a little bite or a little firmness remaining when you taste test it.

Take what's left of that lemon out of the 'shrooms.

Put the pasta in the buttered casserole dish.

Add the mushrooms. I simply spoon them on. But that's so my kids can pick them out more easily. You may very well want to toss the pasta and the mushrooms together before putting them in the casserole. In fact, why don't you just go ahead and do that. I think that would be better. Unless your kids are picky like mine.

Pour the white sauce over the pasta and mushrooms.
Wasn't this easy?

It's ready to bake. 375 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes.

For finished product, see picture at the top.