Reducipe – Chicken Tetrazzini

Posted on September 15, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Food, Reducipes

Reducipe
Pronunciation: ri-doos-uh-pee
Function: noun
1 : a recipe that can help lower your food costs in a variety of ways
     a : by scaling back an expensive recipe to be less pricey but still just as tasty
     b : by turning an already inexpensive meal into something special
     c : by using leftovers in creative ways to stretch their use

Total comfort food! Chicken Tetrazzini is a rich, luxurious pasta dish that uses up leftover shredded chicken beautifully. It also does wonders for leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. It’s creamy and buttery and velvety smooth with a homemade cream sauce. You must try this out.

This is definitely not a low calorie meal. The cream sauce pretty much ensures that. If you are concerned about that make the portion sizes smaller and feed 6 instead of 4. It reheats wonderfully for leftovers so don’t be afraid to “nuke” it at the office.

Nothing in this meal is very expensive and it gives you a good way to use up that leftover chicken later in the week. To make it cheaper you could substitute dried thyme for fresh (although it isn’t as good) and you could use chicken broth instead of wine. I highly recommend you use wine though – the acidity really improves the dish. What better excuse to open a bottle?

Chicken Tetrazzini (adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis)

6-7 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup shredded chicken, cooked
1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (dried is ok in a pinch)
1/4 cup white wine
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (no skim – whole or 2% preferred)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 pinch ground nutmeg
2 good shakes of garlic powder
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
8 ounces linguine
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup dried Italian-style breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Spread 1 tablespoon of butter inside a baking dish that has 2 inch sides. Put the chicken in a large mixing bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon each of butter and oil to a hot pan. Add the mushrooms and sauté over medium-high heat until the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates and they become pale golden, about 10 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme, and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the bowl with the chicken.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in the same pan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, cream, broth, garlic powder, nutmeg, and salt and pepper (to taste). Increase the heat to medium and cover to bring to a boil. Remove the lid and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5-10 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the linguine and cook until it is tender but still firm, about 6-7 minutes. Drain. Add the linguine, sauce, and peas to the chicken mixture. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta and the mixture is well blended.

Transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir the cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the pasta and dot with the remaining butter. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 20 minutes. Generously serves 4.

The mushrooms and the onions add so much volume and texture that I only used the meat from one chicken leg for the whole meal. Here are the ingredients laid out (minus the olive oil, I ran out of cups!).

I like to serve this with something like a veggie or a salad. It helps cut through the richness. Also, I like to add a dash of cayenne for some heat. Don’t be stingy with the breadcrumbs. You will really like that crust. Fresh chopped parsley looks great as a garnish. Enjoy!

Comments

6 Responses to “Reducipe – Chicken Tetrazzini”

Joanna on September 15th, 2007 6:42 pm

Chicken tetrazzini is one of my favorite standbys! It’s seriously a comfort food around my house- thanks for sharing your recipe!
Melissa on September 15th, 2007 6:56 pm

Joanna – Thanks! My husband and I *love* this recipe too. We really love the cream sauce with a *lot* of garlic powder added. It really adds something extra. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for commenting!
Stephanie on September 19th, 2007 11:15 am

That does sound good, and who can beat the price when you only use one chicken leg?!

Love the ingredient shot!
Melissa on September 20th, 2007 6:26 pm

Stephanie – Thanks! I really like being able to show all the ingredients that will be used in the recipe. As for the one chicken leg, we’ve found that if you use mushrooms, then you don’t even notice that there isn’t a ton of chicken in it. This is definitely one of our favorites!
Damien(new comment) on October 4th, 2008 5:52 pm

Thank you SO much. What a great recipe. The Parmesan and bread crumbs didn’t crisp up too much, because i was unclear what dot the butter meant, but overall, FANTASTIC.

Thanks again

Damien
Jessica(new comment) on October 23rd, 2008 11:37 pm

This is my all time favorite dish. I had it all the time while in College, though it was mainly store bought but still so good. I’m glad I now have the recipe to make it myself. Thanks for the recipe and cannot wait to try and make this.