Ultimate Chicken Tetrazzini: Creamy, Cheesy, and Family-Friendly!

I'm gonna show you how to make chicken tetrazzini. This is a brilliant way to use up leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken, and it is supremely creamy and cheesy. So, so good. This is a family favorite, and I think you're gonna love it. And I'm craving some chicken tetrazzini, so let's get started. We'll start with some quick prep. Butter a nine by 13 casserole dish, and I will link to this one, my favorite, in the notes. Also preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, you'll need four cups of shredded chicken. You can use rotisserie chicken to make this recipe super easy, or you can cook your own chicken breast. You can dice or shred it up into bite-sized pieces. Either way, it'll work fine. It will shred easier if the chicken is warm. Can I have the rest of the chicken? Yes. Remember how Diana used to help us in the kitchen? She'd be like, one slice of apple for the bowl, one slice of apple for Diana. Do you remember that? So cute. Next, slice one pound of white mushrooms. I prefer to thickly slice these because I love that meaty texture of mushrooms. And it's gonna seem like a lot of mushrooms, but don't worry, they shrink down a lot once they're sauteed. Now, finely chop one medium yellow onion. I always take off the top layer because life's too short to struggle with an onion. If you finely chop up the onion, it will disappear into the casserole, and you won't have any weird onion texture. I love onion for the flavor that it adds, but I don't necessarily wanna know that it's there when I bite into it. You'll also need some freshly chopped parsley. You'll need about a quarter cup for the sauce, and then I also like to chop a little extra to garnish. Also, finely mince about four garlic cloves. I found an easy way to peel them is to smash them with the side of your knife. Then the skins should slide right off. Now, just finely mince up your garlic and set it aside. And you all know how much I love my food scraper. It's literally like a third hand in the kitchen. I will link to it in the notes. Now that all of our prep work is done, it's time to start cooking. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then season it with salt and add your pasta. I'm using a linguine here, but you can also use spaghetti. Stir the pasta, especially towards the beginning of cooking to make sure it doesn't stick. It's a little dramatic. Now set a large skillet over medium-high heat and add two tablespoons of oil. Then add your sliced mushrooms and saute for about three minutes or until they're softened and the liquid has evaporated. While that's going, we're gonna check on the pasta. You wanna cook the pasta until it's al dente, so follow the package instructions. Do not overcook it because remember, we're still putting it into the oven to finish it. Set aside about half a cup of the hot pasta cooking water just in case you want a thinner sauce. Then drain your pasta. Once it's drained, you can put it back into the pot and set it aside. The mushrooms have softened and it's time to add the diced onion. Saute for another five to seven minutes or until the onions are soft and golden. Next, add the minced garlic and saute for about another minute or until it's fragrant. Transfer the mushrooms to a separate plate and in the same skillet, melt your butter. There's no need to wash the pan because we want all of that flavor that's left from the mushrooms. As soon as the butter melts, sprinkle the top with flour and stir that together. Stir that for a couple of minutes to cook off the raw flour taste, then gradually add in the chicken broth. If you whisk while slowly adding the broth, it'll result in a smoother sauce. Next, add a tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice from about half of a large lemon, then season with salt and pepper and whisk until that's smooth. Next, add your half and half. You can also use equal parts of milk and cream if you don't have half and half on hand. Bring that back to a simmer and whisk for another two minutes or until it's thickened. Now it's time to put it all together. Into the pot with the pasta, add your shredded chicken, your sauteed mushroom mixture, a quarter cup of fresh chopped parsley, then we're gonna add all of the sauce and make sure you get every drop. Stir that all together until it's well combined and the noodles are coated. To make it a little more moist and saucy, I do like to add about a quarter cup of that reserved pasta water. I do like to season to taste at this point with salt and pepper. Everything is cooked at this point in the pot so it's totally okay to taste it and adjust your seasoning. Transfer the mixture to your prepared casserole dish and spread it out evenly. And last but not least, sprinkle on a generous amount of shredded mozzarella cheese. This creates an irresistible cheesy crust and seals in the moisture in the casserole dish. Start by baking your casserole covered with foil at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Then take off the foil and continue baking for about 15 minutes. If you want your casserole dish to have some golden brown spots on top, you can broil for the last one to two minutes. When it's done, the sauce will be bubbling at the edges. Oh, look at this. It is still bubbling and I cannot wait for this taste test because first of all, I mean, come on. And second of all, I really want you to see this creamy, cheesy cheese pull. It is so good. Okay, but to serve, of course, we're gonna add a little parsley over the top because we have to. It's just so pretty. It's so pretty with parsley. Remember there's parsley inside, there's parsley on top. We like the parsley. And let's dig in. Are you ready for this? I am. Okay, here we go. Oh, this is speaking to me. Look at how cheesy and creamy and gooey. Oh my goodness. Oh, I feel like I need two utensils here because this is, it looks a little dangerous. Ooh, let's work this. It's ridiculously delicious. I am so excited. Every time I make this, it just makes me happy. You know, like it's comfort food. It comforts me. Just also really hungry. And this smells good. And I can't resist cheese and I love pasta. All the things, right? And I do like to add a little bit more parsley because it's a cute thing to do, you know? Let's do the twirly whirly. A little bit of everything on my fork. That's exactly how it's supposed to be. And mushrooms are so good here. I hope you love mushrooms. They add a lot of flavor to the dish. They add a lot of flavor to the sauce, but you know what? If you really despise mushrooms, we can still be friends and you can use frozen peas. There's some different options and I will put those into the post to keep everybody happy. But I hope you try with mushrooms. It's so good. It's how it's supposed to be, you know? This is like a massive fork full. That's how I roll. You know that already. Okay. It's signature Natasha, right? It's too big. Okay, I can do this. I got this, I got this. Oh boy. 10 out of 10. 11 out of 10 for all the things. It is so, so creamy. Not even a teensy bit dry. It's like luxurious. And because the noodles bake in that sauce, it absorbs a lot of the flavor and you're going to love every bite I'm telling you. Plus the chicken absorbs the flavor too. And so do the mushrooms and it just all fuses together in the oven. It is marvelous. And it also reheats really well because it's a creamy sauce. You just want to add a little splash of half and half or milk or even a little bit of water when you're reheating it. That's the secret to keeping pasta creamy on the reheat. Oh my goodness. I am just really looking forward to eating the rest of this because I mean. I also love that it's protein packed. It's like a meal in itself but I probably would serve this with like a light salad just to add some veggies. Like fine, whatever. We need veggies. And if you guys want more dinner ideas, we have a terrific pasta and grains section in our cookbook. All family-friendly things. That was the whole idea with this book is just easy. Delicious meal ideas that the whole family will love. So I will link to that. And let me know where you guys spotted Sharky. First person to spot him and say exactly where they saw him gets a $100 gift card. Also let me know if you guys have any recipe requests and we'll see you on the next episode of Natasha's Kitchen. Now over and out because I have a date with pasta. I've always loved pasta. I just love it and love it. Luxurious, marvelous. I'm telling you, come over here, bro. The kids are gonna be so happy when they come home from school. Mama's also very happy. These are all huge bites. I'm embarrassing myself now. Okay, see you later. This is the Mr. Bean dance.