Vintage Recipe

Chicken Tetrazzini

I had phone in hand to make a photo of this dish just after it came out of the oven. And before I made a picture, the doorbell rang. It was my book club ladies arriving for lunch. You know after that, I totally forgot about photos. But they know me well enough to let me get a quick picture of my plate before we ate lunch. 

I did get this picture as I cleaned up the kitchen later. This chicken tetrazzini recipe is one we've used for over 40 years. It's from the days when condensed "cream of _____" soup was in everything. I don't use much canned soup anymore, but it's works here and I'm not messing with a good thing.

Right after we married, I wrote aunts, uncles and lots of cousins asking for them to send me their favorite recipes. I got recipes from my mom and dad and sister. And I put them together in a family cookbook. This was so long ago that it involved letters with stamps, a typewriter, my secretary at work and a local printer to get this project done. (For those of you too young to remember typewriters, just know that making corrections was a pain in the patootie.) That tells you HOW long ago this was. If I were to to this again that family tree would have many, many more leaves!

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The recipe was contributed by my sister and over the years, I've made a few adjustments. So this is very version I use now. I had intentions of using fresh mushrooms this time but I was running behind in my prep. The canned mushrooms are acceptable here. I like sliced mushrooms so that if anyone doesn't like mushrooms they are easy to pick out. For years this was the recipe I took to new mothers. And sometimes the little kids in a family could easily avoid the mushrooms. 

Take note...this makes a 2-quart casserole—not a 9x13 dish.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup grated sharp cheese

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/8 teaspoon oregano

1/8 teaspoon pepper

4-oz. can sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons chopped green pepper

1 tablespoon chopped pimento

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

8-oz. pkg. spaghetti, cooked (most boxes are 16-oz, so use half)

1 cup buttered bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 2-qt. baking dish with PAM.

Put butter, cheese, flour, milk, soup, oregano and pepper in a large saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until cheese melts, stirring frequently.  Add mushrooms, green pepper, pimentos and chicken.  

Put cooked spaghetti in a 2-qt. baking dish.  Pour sauce over the spaghetti and stir gently.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs.  

Bake for 30 minutes.

You can make this with turkey or ham instead of chicken.

I wasn't sure that the 2-qt recipe was going to be enough for my group so I doubled the recipe this time. FYI, a 9x13-inch dish holds 3 quarts. So a double recipe filled that bigger dish and one smaller one. I put that one in the freezer for later. I did put the bread crumbs in a separate bag and laid it on top of the wrapped dish, then put them both in a zipper freezer bag. 

We actually ate this dish last night. It was just as good as the first time. I took it out of the freezer the day before and moved it to the refrigerator. If I had frozen a larger did, it would need a couple of days to thaw. Bake until internal temp is 165º. If it's not quite thawed it might take a few extra minutes.

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And I thought I'd share what spring is looking like here on the farm. Flowers are blooming, brilliant blue skies...and then nearly 6 inches of rain fell in 3-1/2 days. Our farm pasture extends all the way to the river.  Now, watch us have no rain in June and July!

The river has overflowed the banks.