Chicken Tetrazzini

This recipe comes from Giada de Laurentiis. I love her pasta recipes, especially the creamy pastas. I haven't made this in a while because its pretty time consuming and requires a lot of ingredients. But its definitely worth the time. Its super creamy and not for the diet conscious either. This recipe calls for chicken that you have to cook, but you can eliminate that step of cooking the chicken by using a prepared roast chicken that you would find at the supermarket, then chop it all up for this recipe.

9 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

4 boneless chicken breasts

2 1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 large onion, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. thyme leaves

1/2 cup white wine

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup chicken broth

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

12 ounces spaghetti or linguine pasta, cooked al dente

3/4 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup breadcrumbs.

1) Preheat oven to 450 deg. F. Grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with 1 Tbsp. butter and set aside

2) Melt 1 Tbsp. of butter and 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper. Cook chicken on the hot pan until pale golden, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from the pan and cool slightly. Coarsely shred chicken into bite-size pieces and place in a large bowl. Set aside.

3) In the same pan, add 1 Tbsp. each of butter and oil. Add mushrooms and sautee until the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates and the mushrooms become pale golden, about 12 minutes. Add onion, garlic and thyme. Sautee until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture in the bowl with chicken.

4) Melt 3 more Tbsp. butter in the same pan. Add flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, cream, broth, nutmeg, the remaining 1 3/4 tsp. salt, and the remaining 3/4 tsp. pepper. Increase the heat to high. cover and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered, until sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.

5) Add sauce, cooked pasta, peas, and parsley to the chicken mixture. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta and mixture is well blended.

6) Transfer pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle cheese mixture over the pasta. Dot the pasta with the remaining 3 Tbsp. butter. Bake uncovered until golden brown and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes