Chicken Tetrazzini – my Grandmother’s recipe! SO simple and it tastes great! Chicken, vermicelli pasta, cream of chicken and mushroom soup, chicken broth, garlic, onion, parmesan cheese. One of my all-time favorite recipes. I can eat way too much of this stuff! Can make ahead and freezer for later.
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This is one of our family’s favorite recipes. My Grandmother and Mom would always make this Chicken Tetrazzini the night before Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am not a big fan of turkey, so they would make this so I would have leftovers at the holiday feast. I absolutely love this dish. This is one of those dishes that I could eat myself sick on – doesn’t everybody have one of those?
How to Make Chicken Tetrazzini
This is so simple, but it is seriously delicious. Start with boiling pasta. While the pasta is cooking, chop some cooked chicken and whisk together cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and chicken broth. When the pasta is done assemble the casserole. Layer half the pasta, half the chicken, and half of the soup mixture. Repeat layers and top with grated parmesan cheese.
- To cut down on prep time, I use a whole rotisserie chicken. Feel free to boil a whole chicken and use the meat and broth in the dish.
- My grandmother’s recipe calls for the casserole to be baked for 1½ hours. Feel free to adjust that cooking time down.
- You can use 98% Fat Free or Healthy Choice soup.
- You can use any combination of cream of soups – all chicken, all mushroom, cream of celery, cream of broccoli. Whatever will be fine.
- Feel free to add mushrooms and peas to the casserole.
- I use freshly grated parmesan cheese. The green can is also fine.
- I make this with vermicelli pasta. You can substitute thin spaghetti, spaghetti, or even linguine if you prefer.
- Can Chicken Tetrazzini be made in advance? Yes! You can assemble the casserole ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake. It will keep in the refrigerator 2 or 3 days.
- Can Chicken Tetrazzini be frozen? Yes! You can assemble the casserole and freeze unbaked for a quick meal later. To bake after freezing, thaw completely and bake as directed.
- You can also freeze the baked casserole. To reheat after freezing, thaw completely. Cover with aluminum foil and bake as directed.
What to Serve with Chicken Spaghetti
Chicken Legs’ favorite part of the dish is the browned parmesan cheese crust on top. I always pop the casserole under the broiler so it gets a nice crust for him. We serve this with some green beans and bread. This is also great with a salad. Here are a few of our favorite recipes from the blog that go great with my Grandmother’s recipe:
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Annmama’s Chicken Tetrazzini
Equipment:
Ingredients:
- 1 whole rotisserie chicken
- 1 (16-oz) package vermicelli pasta cooked according to package directions
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Unsalted Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Unsalted Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Remove skin from chicken and discard. Remove meat from the chicken and chop.
- Whisk together soups, chicken broth, garlic powder and onion powder.
- Lightly spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray. Layer ½ vermicelli, ½ chicken, and ½ of soup mixture. Sprinkle half of the parmesan cheese on the pasta. Repeat layers and top with remaining parmesan cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour, uncover and cook an additional 15 to 30 minutes, until bubbly.
Notes:
- To cut down on prep time, I use a whole rotisserie chicken. Feel free to boil a whole chicken and use the meat and broth in the dish.
- My grandmother’s recipe calls for the casserole to be baked for 1½ hours. Feel free to adjust that cooking time down.
- You can use 98% Fat Free or Healthy Choice soup.
- You can use any combination of cream of soups – all chicken, all mushroom, cream of celery, cream of broccoli. Whatever will be fine.
- I suggest using Unsalted Cream of Chicken & Mushroom Soups in this dish to control the sodium.
- You can buy it by the case at Amazon:
- Cream of Chjcken: https://amzn.to/49n4uZE
- Cream of Mushroom: https://amzn.to/3SkpNVv
- Need Gluten-free soup? You can buy it here:
- Cream of Chicken: https://amzn.to/3MtqQ1s
- Cream of Mushroom: https://amzn.to/45WqyXY
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup/
- Substitute mushroom bouillon to make cream of mushroom soup.
- You can buy it by the case at Amazon:
- I suggest using Unsalted Cream of Chicken & Mushroom Soups in this dish to control the sodium.
- Feel free to add mushrooms and peas to the casserole.
- I use freshly grated parmesan cheese. The green can is also fine.
- I make this with vermicelli pasta. You can substitute thin spaghetti, spaghetti, or even linguine if you prefer.
- You can assemble the casserole ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake. It will keep in the refrigerator 2 or 3 days.
- You can assemble the casserole and freeze unbaked for a quick meal later. To bake after freezing, thaw completely and bake as directed.
- You can also freeze the baked casserole. To reheat after freezing, thaw completely. Cover with aluminum foil and bake as directed.
Steph
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I love this recipe it is so tasty and I also put a block of cream cheese in it that is awesome!
sounds yummy! I’ll have to try that
Yum! I made this for dinner tonite. No changes. It is so easy and so good. Thank you for another "keeper". ????????
My husband does not like garlic. I am not a big fan either. Is there another spice I can substitute? Thanks Kim
Just made this and its delicious!
Made this this weekend, glad I did. Very yummy. I'll probably cut it in half next time though. My husband and I both ate it, pulled some for lunch and had half a casserole left over that I brought over to my dads for him to warm up and eat.
Making this today, its in the oven. Smells so good!!
Do you use an already cooked chicken for this dish and then bake again for 90 minutes?
Am I miss g sometjing? What do you do with the chicken broth? Do you mix it with the soups?
yes – "Whisk together soups, chicken broth, and garlic powder."
Could I put this together the night before and refrigerate? I am looking for dishes that I can do that with because I don't get home from work until 5:30 so I need food that all my husband has to do when he gets home is put it in the oven.
Absolutely!
Mine is baking in the oven right now. I can already tell I have a new potluck favorite.
This recipe has a lot of problems. First, 32 oz of broth is way too much, as is 16 oz of pasta. The liquid rimmed the edge of the 13 x 9 pan and caused runover in the oven. Dish was bland with no added salt or pepper. The pic clearly shows cheddar cheese, not Parmesan, and I will indefinitely not be making it again.
Haley – this would make at least 8 servings
About how many servings does this make?
Seriously… It says pasta: COOKED ACCORDING TO PACKAGE… Why ask if u are supposed to boil it first?
Cooper absolutely loved it: "Mom, this is really good!" You have no idea how rare that comment is in our house. He even wanted to taked leftovers in his lunch today.
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I've never had chicken tetrazzini before, but this sounds amazing.
made this tonight – really delicious! i was impressed that it wasn't as high calorie as i thought when i put it into recipe calculator. thanks for a great recipe! next time i might try adding in veggies to make this a full meal casserole… has anyone else done that?
This is similar to a family favorite here. Can't wait to try your version. Also wanted to let you know you have your own board on my Pinterest because I love your recipes so much! Thanks for sharing!
Yum!! I made this for dinner last night and it was a hit. Super easy to put together with things from the pantry, but had that loving, comfort food quality. For the leftovers tonight I sauteed some walnuts in butter and put those on before I reheated it in the oven. It was wonderful! Thank you!
Would ANY other noodle work for this? Like egg noodles?
Mrs.O'C – I do cook it for 90 minutes. It is worth it – this is really delicious!
Is it really 90 minutes of cook time? I'm still willing to give it a whirl because this sounds DELICIOUS!!
Shelly – it depends on the size – I would use 2 pounds of chicken breasts. So, 3 or 4 depending on the size.
Do you use the grated parmesan in the green shaker or grated off a block?
Vickie – I used the green shaker, but grated would be fine too
If you didn't use a rotisserie chicken, how many chicken breasts would you use?
@Laurie & doublegranny – Yes. 16oz vermicelli, cooked according to pkg directions.
That is one of those old faithful recipes!
YUM, I made the potato casserole last night for dinner! Thanks for sharing all of these YUMMY recipes! My Husband is loving them too:O) Have a blessed day, HUGS!
Do you boil the pasta first? Thanks!
I'm assuming you boil the pasta first?
Yum!! I love chicken Tetrazzini. One of my favorite dishes!!