Looking for more? Check out my 40 Chicken Dinner Ideas, these Easy Crockpot Chicken Breast Recipes or these 15 Chicken Casserole Recipes — perfect for making ahead! We’ve come to the end of the month and I’m sharing my last chicken dinner to make with this month’s 6 Ingredient Staple: this Perfect Roast Chicken! With our chicken carcass (it’s gold — don’t throw it out!) we made this Homemade Chicken Stock, and with our stock we made this classic Chicken Noodle Soup. Now we’re taking our chicken and chicken stock to the next level with this easy Chicken Tetrazzini. There are no canned cream soups in sight here, but I promise you that homemade is the only way to do tetrazzini — the flavor is so much better and you can customize it to your tastes. I’ll show you how to do it with my tips below!
What are the ingredients in Tetrazzini?
Traditionally, tetrazzini is made with mushrooms, chicken or turkey (see my Turkey Tetrazzini recipe here and my One Pot Turkey Tetrazzini Recipe here), and a creamy sauce that includes white wine. Now, here at The Recipe Rebel we are all about easy, family meals and I don’t cook a lot with wine (or mushrooms, to be honest), and I didn’t use it here. If you prefer, you can substitute ½ cup of the chicken broth for dry white wine, but I wouldn’t say that it changes the flavor enough to warrant buying a bottle if you aren’t going to use it (or drink it) all. I like to add frozen peas, because it’s one of the vegetables we all enjoy here, and when I’m making it for my family, I usually leave out the mushrooms (or they pick them out). There really is a lot of flexibility here, so feel free to customize the recipe a little.
Variations on this Chicken Tetrazzini recipe:
Swap your vegetables: as I mentioned above, you can leave out the peas and mushrooms or keep them and add in your favorites. Any vegetables you add should be cooked (or at least par-cooked) before you add them to the tetrazzini before baking.. Swap your protein: don’t have leftover chicken but you have turkey? Ham? Salmon? Feel free to swap it out for what you have handy. Swap your noodles: tetrazzini is traditionally made with long noodles, either spaghetti or linguine or spaghettini, but there really are no rules since they are cooked before being tossed with everything else. Get that crispy crust: if you like your baked pastas with a crispy bread crumb crust, feel free to stir together a little melted butter and some Panko bread crumbs and sprinkle them over the top before baking.
What do I do if I don’t have precooked chicken?
If you’ve made your roast chicken and the family ate it all (it happens all the time here!), this Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken and this Instant Pot Shredded Chicken are great ways to prep some chicken without having to do a lot of work. If you don’t have a slow cooker or Instant Pot, these Pan Fried Chicken Breasts would be a great addition — just let cool for at least 10 minutes before chopping and adding to the tetrazzini.
How to store Chicken Tetrazzini:
In the refrigerator:
Tetrazzini is a great dish to prep ahead and save in the fridge for a busy weeknight! Just prep up to the point of baking, then cover tightly and refrigerate up to 4 days before baking. (Note: the pasta will absorb the sauce as it sits, so you may want to add a 1/4-½ cup of water or cream to the dish before baking if you notice it looks dry) You can also bake and serve immediately, then refrigerate leftovers up to 4 days.
In the freezer:
Tetrazzini is also a great freezer meal! You can pour it into a 9×13″ baking dish as the recipe calls for or you can divide it into smaller dishes for individual meals. Simply prepare up to the point of baking, then cover tightly and freeze up to 3 months. I recommend thawing before baking, either on the counter or in the refrigerator, as it will bake up more evenly than trying to bake from frozen.
More baked pasta dishes you’ll love!
We love baked pastas because they are perfect for prepping ahead and refrigerating or freezing until you need them! Here are a few family favorites:
Rigatoni Pasta Bake Manicotti recipe Baked Ziti with Italian Turkey Sausage Easy Lasagna recipe Chicken Alfredo Bake
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