I love this Easy Chicken Tetrazzini recipe. It is so full of wonderfully creamy flavor and still a hearty pasta dish that will fill you up on those cold winter nights.
This is a great comfort food dish to make up when you have leftover chicken from another meal that you can use so it doesn’t go to waste.
It doesn’t have to be only chicken either you can also use shredded turkey too if you have some that you froze from Thanksgiving or if you make another turkey for the upcoming holidays.
What is Chicken Tetrazzini?
Chicken Tetrazzini is a baked casserole made with poultry or seafood, and mixed with dairy and pasta that is topped with cheese and breadcrumbs.
Ingredient Notes
- Linguine pasta or Thin Spaghetti
- Butter
- Flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Chicken broth
- Half and half
- Cooked and shredded chicken breasts
- Mushrooms
- Pimentos
- Fresh parsley
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Shredded Mozzarella cheese
How To Make This Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe
- Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
- Then, read the directions for the linguine and cook the noodles accordingly.
- While the noodles are cooking, in a large saucepan melt the butter.
- After the butter is completely melted, add in the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper and stir it all until it is nice and smooth.
- As you continue to stir the butter roux, carefully pour in the chicken broth, still stirring at the same time.
- Now, bring all of that to a boil and let it cook for about 1-2 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
- Then remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the half and half until it is completely mixed in.
- When the pasta is done cooking, pour it into a colander to drain the water.
- Then place the noodle in a big bowl and add in the shredded cooked chicken, sliced mushrooms, drained pimentos, and the freshly chopped parsley and give the pasta mixture a good stir.
- Now, pour the cream sauce over top of the noodle mixture and stir it all together until everything is covered in the sauce.
- Spray a 9×13 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and then pour in the noodle mixture.
- Top the noodles off with the Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and then place it in the oven for 30 minutes covered with foil.
- After 30 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake the Chicken Tetrazzini for another 20 minutes.
- When the timer is done, remove the casserole from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes, and then just serve it with your favorite sides!
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Leftover chicken tetrazzini is almost better than when it’s freshly made! Keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Reheat over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, just until it’s warm. If the chicken tetrazzini seems a little dry, add a splash of chicken broth or milk as it cooks.
Chicken Tetrazzini can be made both with and without the mushrooms. Feel free to skip them, if they aren’t your thing.
Yes, if you don’t want to use Mozzarella Cheese try Cheddar or Colby cheese.
Feel free to use a rotisserie chicken in the recipe, it helps save on time and tastes delicious.
Serving Suggestions
- Easy Green Garden Salad
- Olive Garden Fresh Garden Salad Copycat
- Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat
- Sheet Pan Garlic Breadsticks
Chicken Tetrazzini
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pasta, linquine
- 6 Tablespoons butter
- 6 Tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- dash cayenne pepper
- 2 (14.5) ounce chicken broth, canned
- 1 cup half and half
- 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 4 ounces pimentos, diced and drained
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook linguine as directed on package. While it cooks, melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. When the butter is completely melted, stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper until mixture is smooth.
- Carefully pour in the broth, stirring as you pour it in. Bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Remove saucepan from stove top and stir in half-and-half.
- After pasta is done cooking, drain the water and pour into a large bowl. Add the chicken, mushrooms, pimentos, and parsley. Pour sauce on top and mix until everything is covered in sauce.
- Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour noodle and sauce mixture into the pan. Top with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes, serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
Yumm! I love chicken tetrazzini, this looks delicious! Sharing and pinning! 🙂
Oh yum, one of my favorite ways to use leftover turkey and how timely with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching. My family gives thanks for all of you lovely lady sassy sisters because we enjoy your recipes quite often….keep up the good work!
Just read about you all in Taste of Home so I had to look up your
website right away. This recipe sounds so good that I would like
to try it this week for sure!
Thank yoy from the beautiful state of Maryland!
I made this two days ago for supper and it was just ok. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t necessarily that great…I followed the recipe exactly and I don’t know it was just bland tasting like something was missing.
Thank you for the recipe though! 🙂
I made this yesterday and found it to be bland tasting. I was so disappointed because it looked and smelled wonderful. I had added more mushrooms than the recipe called for as well as sauteed chopped onion and it was still lacked flavor. Today, I salvaged the leftovers by making more of the sauce and adding more sauteed onions, mushrooms and garlic. I deglazed the pan with Marsala and that was the extra something that my family’s palate needed. Thank you for the recipe though. I will continue to use this recipe as a base and just add the extra ingredients that work for our tastes.
Following the lead of the other posters, I augmented this recipe. My chicken was cooked with an basic salt free seasoning. I shredded it, then added to the sauce along with sautéed onions, chopped marinated artichoke hearts, and I used chopped baby spinach instead of the parsley. I also added extra parmesan into the sauce, along with about 1 cup of sour cream. It came out very tasty. Without those additions, I think it would have fallen into the bland category.
What do you normally serve to your family along with the tetrazzini? I know it’s really a meal in itself but my girls and hubby become frustrated whenever I set a one dish meal on the table…..any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank you!
In our recipe index we have a tab labeled side dishes. You can get lots of ideas there on what to serve with the Chicken Tetrazzini.
https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/category/recipes/side-dish
Loved the Chicken Tetrazzini!! I used this recipe as a guide and added my own spin. I based the chicken breast & cut it into small bite size pieces. I used Rigatoni Pasta instead of linguine. I added minces garlic to the sauce. I used baby portabello mushrooms sliced very thin. Omitted the pimentos since I don’t like them. I also used a little more mozzarella than this recipe called for. My family loved it! Served only with garlic bread.
Omg I just made this and it was good! I hate mushrooms and peppers and I have to admit it was delicious!!!!! I love this!!!!!
Just made this tonight. DELICIOUS! My kiddos (6 and 3) gobbled it up. My mom would die if she knew I replaced her “cream of mushroom laden chicken tetrazzini” with yours…Cheers!
Could this recipe be made in the casserole type crockpot
It should work fine in a casserole crockpot because you cook the pasta and turkey before putting it in the pan. It may take a little longer to cook if the crockpot doesn’t heat up to 350 degrees like an oven. Let us know how it turns out!
Can you freeze this recipe? Either before or after baking? It was yummy! I added about 2 Tbsp turkey gravy (from a jar.)
This could easily work as a freezer meal. Just assemble the casserole and freeze before cooking. Then just thaw and cook.
For some reason this turned out dry for me. Not sure why, but if I make it again I’ll halve the amount of pasta.
We really enjoyed this dish. It’s a great recipe that I will be repeating. Thank you!
Just made this…added bacon and cooked it on my pellet smoker…amazing recipe!
I followed the directions but did not have the Pimentos..So, I fried up some red pepper and the mushrooms…which worked fine. This recipe was enjoyed by all! I also made a vegetarian version – Organic NoChicken Broth, Gardein Chick’n strips and the dish came out really well and was easy! Great meal!
It looks delicious and I look forward to making this recipe but am confused as to what half & half is?
Half-and-half is a mixture of half whole milk and half cream. It’s what you use when you need something richer than milk, but not quite as thick as cream. If you can’t find it in the store you can make your own mixture using milk and heavy cream or just use whole milk
How much shredded chicken is used?
The recipe calls for approximately 5 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded. This would equal approximately 5.5 to 7.5 cups of shredded chicken, depending on the size of the breasts