Gourmet's Chicken Tetrazzini
Submitted by capricorn
Chicken Tetrazzini from scratch with homemade broth, spaghetti, mushrooms, cream, and dry sherry baked under a Parmesan crust. A rich, old-school casserole built on real flavor.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
1 hrsREADY
1 hrsThis chicken Tetrazzini does things the proper way: you poach a whole 4-pound chicken, build a concentrated broth from the bones, and use that as the base for a cream sauce spiked with dry sherry and a grating of nutmeg. No canned soup shortcuts here.
The broth reduction is where the magic happens. Simmering it down to 2 cups concentrates all that chicken flavor into something rich and almost sticky. That reduced broth becomes your sauce foundation once you whisk it into a butter-flour roux with heavy cream.
Half the sauce gets tossed with sauteed mushrooms and spaghetti, then pressed into a baking dish with a well in the center. The other half coats the shredded chicken, which fills that center well. A generous blanket of grated Parmesan on top turns golden and crispy in the oven.
That nutmeg is doing more than you’d think. Just a little rounds out the cream sauce and keeps it from tasting flat. Don’t skip it.
Chef Tips
- Simmer the chicken gently, never at a hard boil, or the meat turns stringy and tough
- Skim the fat from the broth while it reduces for a cleaner, lighter sauce
- Cook the roux a full 3 minutes before adding liquid to eliminate that raw flour taste
- Al dente spaghetti is critical. It keeps cooking in the oven, so underdone from the pot is actually just right
Variations
- Turkey Tetrazzini: Use leftover roasted turkey and store-bought stock for a great post-Thanksgiving version
- Lighter take: Swap half the cream for whole milk and reduce the butter by 2 tablespoons
Ingredients
Directions
In a kettle, combine the chicken with enough salted water to cover it by 2 inches.
Bring water to a boil, and simmer the chicken for 20 minutes or until it is tender.
Let chicken cool in the broth, separate the meat from the skin and bones, returning the skin and bones to the broth.
Cut the meat into strips and reserve.
Simmer the broth until it is reduced by half, strain through a fine sieve, discarding the solids.
Skim off fat.
Boil the stock until it is reduced to about 2 cups.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook the mushrooms in 2 tablespoon butter over mod-low heat, stirring, until they are softened.
In a kettle of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti until it is al dente.
Drain it well.
In a saucepan melt remaining butter over med-low heat.
Add flour and cook the roux, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Whisk in the reserved broth, cream and Sherry.
Bring the sauce to a boil, whisking, and simmer it for 5 minutes.
Season with nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.
Stir half into the mushrooms with the spaghetti and transfer it to a well-buttered 2½ qt. baking dish , making a well in the center.
Add the chicken meat to the remaining sauce, combine well.
Spoon this into the center of the spaghetti and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake in the middle of a preheated 350f oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until pale golden in color.
Serve immediately.
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