The best chicken tetrazzini

The BEST Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe starts with chicken, mushrooms and pasta mixed with a creamy garlic sauce.

Place this treat in a casserole dish and top with a handful of cheese before baking just until melted. Served with warm bread and a salad, this dish is a hit every time.

Almost 18 years ago, my dear friend Lisa brought my family a pan of these chicken tetrazzini. It was one night just days after my middle son was born; And amidst our newborn fog and lack of sleep, we managed to eat an absurd amount of this dish.

You know the dishes that you have tried once and that you keep thinking about? This chicken tetrazzini recipe is one of them. When you’re exhausted from the birth of a child, a hot meal at the end of the day is especially divine.

I promised Sean I would get the prescription as soon as possible. Lisa shared her recipe with me and this pasta has been on our table regularly ever since.

Best Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe

At the time, this was the best chicken and pasta dish we had ever tasted, earning it the honor of being dubbed The Best Chicken Tetrazzini. (And it’s still considered one of the tastiest chicken pasta dishes you’ll ever make!)

It’s an easy and comforting dinner that I make so often I can just about cook it from memory. And I have a feeling chicken tetrazzini will be a meal that my boys think of when they think of childhood favorite family meals.

My whole family really enjoys this meal and one of my boys would love to try his best to eat the whole recipe by himself! When I started making this for dinner last night, I was surprised to find that I didn’t have this recipe on the blog yet.

It’s become so popular that I hardly ever pull out my recipe book when making it. Since this is one of our family’s most requested dishes, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t share the love with you all.

Traditional chicken tetrazzini recipe

For the preparation you need the following ingredients:

• Spaghetti noodles
• butter
• Garlic
• Mushrooms
• Chicken
• Flour
• chicken soup
• whipped cream
• salt and pepper
• Parmesan

Chicken tetrazzini with mushrooms

Does your family have mushroom haters? This recipe is absolutely delicious even without mushrooms.

I find that the mushroom flavor in this recipe isn’t very strong compared to the garlic and chicken. Even my kids, who aren’t the biggest mushroom fans, enjoy the chicken tetrazzini recipe as advertised. However, if you really have an aversion to mushrooms, you can omit them as well.

Chicken tetrazzini recipe

At first glance, this recipe may seem like a lot of steps, but it’s easy enough for a weeknight meal. It’s also a fantastic way to use up leftover baked chicken!

If you don’t have a spare cooked chicken and don’t feel like making one, a supermarket chicken on a skewer will do.

Kitchen tip: I use this pan, sieve and casserole dish for this recipe.

To prepare the ultimate chicken tetrazzini, start by sautéing mushrooms in a pan with melted butter and garlic.

The smell of garlic cooking in the butter is always enough to make me want to eat all the garlic mushrooms straight out of the pan. Luckily, knowing how good the finished dish is gives me the self-control I need.

After removing the cooked mushrooms from the heat, prepare a roux with more butter, flour and chicken broth. Then add cream.

There are different ways to do this. Layer the cooked pasta, chicken, and mushrooms in a bowl and pour the sauce over them. Then sprinkle the whole thing with cheese.

Alternatively, you can return the pasta, chicken, and mushrooms to the pan with the sauce and toss to combine.

Sprinkle with cheese and place the ovenproof pan in the oven to melt the cheese.

After 20 minutes in the oven, the sauce will simmer and the cheese will melt. Chicken tetrazzini are delicious when served hot from the oven. We also love having leftovers to reheat for the next few days.

This chicken recipe is garlicky, creamy and full of tender chicken. I can’t stress enough how well this meal goes down with both kids and adults.

Chicken tetrazzini are a full meal on their own, but they’re also great with a simple green salad topped with homemade Italian salad dressing.

Recipe for baked noodles

Looking for more baked pasta ideas? Lately we’re all loving this Cheese Pizza Pasta Bake and these Mexican Pasta Baked with Cheese. Served with crusty bread, these dishes are dinners no one can resist.

For a pasta guaranteed to warm you up, try this Florentine Mushroom Pasta or this creamy Tuscan One-Pot Pasta. Bacon cheeseburger pasta and homemade hamburger helper are also popular with kids.

The Easiest Baked Macaroni and Cheese Ever are on our menu this week. As an added bonus, it looks so easy my kids can make it themselves.

Did you know that you can make creamy, rich, and flavorful macaroni and cheese on the stovetop in the same time it takes to cook boxed macaroni and cheese?

Creamy, rich truffle macaroni and cheese is a chic take on the ultimate comfort food. If you have never tasted this awesomeness then you are missing out and I highly recommend it.

Creamy and cheesy, with wonderfully lingering spiciness, this green chili mac and cheese is a head turner, transforming typical comfort food into a dish that’s downright irresistible.

We love the convenience of a homemade pasta salad like the Creamy Pasta Salad or the Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad. If you love the garlic in this chicken tetrazzini recipe, you’re sure to love Garlic Lover’s Potato Salad too

Large pasta pans often make a good amount of food, so we’ll likely have leftovers for lunch the next day. That’s a dinner win in my world.

{originally posted 8/29/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 5/29/23}