Chicken Tetrazzini

       

   
Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, I make turkey tetrazzini with leftover turkey meat. The creamy goodness of a casserole is always a good cold weather relief. Tetrazzini delivers, along with a nuttiness that can come from the almonds and parmesan cheese. Roasting a chicken yesterday inspired me to try chicken tetrazzini for all the same reasons. While I have a Joy of Cooking recipe I use for the turkey version, I pulled a different recipe to try something new. Giada De Laurentiis always delivers tastey, easy-to-follow recipes and I own several of her cookbooks. The recipe below is largely hers and came out so creamy and good it was hard to stop eating. Try it and you’ll find out why. Serves 4.
 
Ingredients:
5 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts worth of chicken meat, cooked or uncooked
1 6 oz. can button mushrooms, sliced
6 oz. fettuccine
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp flour
2 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/3 cup frozen peas
½ cup grated Parmesan
2 tbsp bread crumbs
  
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Shred any cooked chicken from a previous recipe into bite-sized pieces. Cut into bite-sized pieces any uncooked chicken and saute in a medium saute pan in 1 tbsp each butter and oil over medium heat. Cook a few minutes on each side until light golden. Transfer chicken to a bowl. Add another 1 tbsp each butter and oil to the saute pan and cook the mushrooms until light golden, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil.  After the mushrooms are cooked, add the onion, garlic and thyme and saute until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile add the fettuccine to the boiling water and cook until still firm, approximately 9 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside. Add the wine to the mushroom mixture and simmer down until reduced by half. Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the chicken. In the pot used to cook the fettuccine, melt 3 tbsp of butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.  Allow the roux to cook a minute to cook off the flour taste.  Add the milk, stock nutmeg, salt and pepper and bring to a boil, stirring the mixture to mix out the lumps. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes to allow the roux to thicken the sauce.  Turn off heat, stir in the peas, mushroom mixture, chicken and pasta. Pour the casserole into a 9 inch square baking dish.  Top with the grated Parmesan and bread crumbs.  Bake, uncovered in the preheated oven until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes.