Chicken Tetrazzini 16/325

The Relation

Jim (left) & Mary (right)

Happy belated birthday to Mary Lucia Eagleson Banks (George>Dot>Mary)! Mary, God bless her, was one of the first to send me the desperately needed corrections to my familial explanations. She is the second youngest child of my great-great-aunt Dot. She would be my first cousin, twice removed. And I am 100% sure that is correct, as that's how she signed off her email.

The Process

A note to the wise: read this section before you forge into the recipe so you do not make the same silly mistakes we did.

Don't forget the green peppers!

We'll start with the chicken: I used 5 chicken breasts because I love chicken and also because the breasts I got seemed smaller than usual. The breasts simmered for about ten minutes on medium heat in water (I had to look up how to cook chicken in water, so don't feel bad if you too were clueless). They rested for another ten minutes before I cut them into chunks.

I know the recipe calls for 1/4 cup butter in the ingredients list, but the recipe itself calls for butter not once, but twice. After some delicate thought, we (sous-chef Grant was back for more) made a collective decision to use a separate quantity of butter for sautee-ing. We started with two tablespoons but ended up adding more as needed.

thick sauce over everything

After adding the lemon juice, salt, and grated onion, we set the mixture aside. Amidst the cooking that occurred after this, we realized the chopped green pepper had not been added yet. Upon further investigation, Grant found that the recipe doesn't actually tell you where to add the green peppers. So, I just tossed them into the mushroom mixture and reheated it while stirring for five additional minutes.

The amount of flour required to make the cream mixture was also not specified (to be clear, this is where we used the full 1/4 cup of butter). We started with one tablespoon, and after the sauce had been completed, we tested the consistency. Personally, I favor a thicker sauce in my food over a watery sauce. We ended up adding another tablespoon of flour to thicken her up.

pre-bake

As for the dry white wine, I picked up the cheapest bottle of Pinot Grigio I could find at the grocery store (I forget the brand but its the one with the kangaroo on the label). The precise division of the sauce was completed by Grant in a liquid measuring cup (can't ever be too exact) while I prepped the shallow baking dish. I used a glass 9 x 13 inch dish.

Pretty sure we added additional cheese to the top of the dish, well above and beyond the half cup requested, but you can never have enough cheese. A week after we made this recipe, I found the 4oz jar of chopped pimientos in my cabinet. Much like the green pepper, the recipe doesn't tell you where to toss these in and thus they were forgotten. So, we really made Chicken Semi-Compromise Tetrazzini.

The Feedback

Absolutely delicious. I don't really have any other feedback. I wish we hadn't forgotten about the pimientos as I think that would have made it even better. I all the leftovers (aside from those sent home with my sous-chef) in a matter of 24 hours.

The Receipt

post-bake

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI - CC90
Mary Lucia

4 whole chicken breasts
1 lb sliced fresh mushrooms
¼ cup butter
½ tsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt
1 tsp grated onion
½ lb spaghetti, cooked
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
⅓ cup dry white wine
4 oz chopped pimento
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup grated Parmesan

Cook chicken covered in water until tender. Cool in broth. Remove meat and cut into chunks. Sauté mushrooms in butter for 5 minutes. Add lemon juice, salt and onion. Set aside. Melt butter. Blend in flour and seasonings. Add broth and cream and cook, stirring, until thickened and smooth. Add wine and divide in half. Add chicken to half and spaghetti and mushroom to other half. Put spaghetti in a large shallow baking dish and make well in the center. Pour in chicken. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes.

The above is the light recipe. Depending on my mood and frugality, I’ve been known to substitute the meat of a whole chicken and up the spaghetti to one pound and to mix the whole mess to together wit half the sauce. Usually I leave out the mushrooms and the pimento and the green pepper. Then you have Compromise Tetrazzini. Still pretty good.