Chicken Tetrazzini

 When I was in college, a friend of mine made a version of chicken tetrazzini. I vaguely remember that (since it was a few, or several, years ago.

I very much remember loving the taste.

I don't think I have had it since.

So not long ago, it came to mind. And I wanted some.  Right now.

Obviously, I couldn't do it right now.  But it got the ball rolling.

I started googling in search of recipes.

I finally found one on a message board I am part of.  I can't fully give credit or link back since it is on a private message board. But I want to say a BIG thank you to Larisa for sharing this recipe.  I followed it fairly closely, adapting it just slightly.

I won't lie.

It was a little daunting.

The recipe is a very "natural" recipe...down to stewing a whole chicken and even making my own "cream" soup.

I am sharing the recipe while adding that you could easily simplify this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 stewed chicken (Stewing a chicken basically means taking a 3-4 pound chicken, covering it with water, bringing it to a boil, then boiling it at medium high heat for about an hour.  Save the broth!)

By the way, I only used half the chicken (pulled off the bones after it has boiled and cooled).  I froze the other half to use for a soup later.  I will also say that I am pretty sure you could just use boil frozen chicken breasts or tenderloins instead.  You will just have to use store bought broth.

1 1/4 cups chicken broth (just skim off the fat from the water you used before to stew the chicken)

16 oz spaghetti noodles cooked

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Cream soup (Recipe below)- You can also use a can of cream of chicken AND a can of cream of mushroom instead.  I will say though that the homemade cream recipe is YUM.

Breadcrumbs (I actually had some leftover homemade bread that I used to make crumbs)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the chicken, noodles, cheddar cheese, chicken broth, and cream soup all together and pour into a large casserole dish.

Top with bread crumbs.

The original recipe recommending dotting with butter.  Since I had already used quite a bit of butter in the cream soup, I just sprayed it with olive oil in my oil mister.  It worked.

Bake for 45-55 minutes.

Enjoy!

We ate ours with breadsticks and carrots/Ranch.

It was quite a hit.

In fact, when I first made it, I said, "I probably should cut this recipe in half next time."  Except that we ate every bite of it.  Not all at once.  But eventually.

It was yum.

Oh, here is the cream soup recipe:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth (again, I just used the broth from the stewed chicken)
1 1/4 cup half and half
6 1/2 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp starch (I used cornstarch)

Melt the butter, stir in a pinch of salt, and add the chicken broth.  Heat until hot.

Meanwhile whisk the cornstarch with the half and half.

Add to the pan all at once.

Cook quickly, stirring until thickened.

Did I mention how good it is???

Reba

PS I had a lot more "broth" leftover I have frozen AND I saved the "carcass" of the chicken.  They are in the freezer for the next time I need to make broth.  I think I got my money's worth out of that chicken!