Day 25: Chicken Tetrazini

I actually have two recipes for this dish, both from Fraser ladies, and they are not at all similar. I had the ingredients in the house for both recipes, and they both sounded really good so I made my decision based on the one that seemed the easiest. This recipe had fewer ingredients and required less time in the kitchen.

When Paul got home today he asked what was on the menu for tonight. I told him chicken tetrazini as I started collecting the ingredients from around the kitchen and then quickly retracted that statement and replied with, " never mind, we are justing have tetrazini." NO chicken in the house!!!! How did that happen? Needless to say a trip to Jewel was necessary at 4:20pm when dinner is usually ready by 5:15pm. Good thing I'm so close to Jewel I could spit on it from my front yard. Forgetting the chicken was a blessing in disguise because when I got to the chicken aisle I discovered that all Perdue and Jewel Signature chicken is buy one package get one free until May 5th !!!!!!! I squealed a little, and I'm not even kidding. I bought two packages of tenders and two packages of breasts for $11.23. I also took 3 more coupons to use for next week. So I went from ticked off that I had to go to the store to elated that I had to go to the store. I couldn't wait to get home and share my news with Paul. I like to think that this type of news is as exciting to everyone else as it is to me :).

Chicken Tetrazini

1 pkg thin spaghetti

1/4 cup butter

4 chicken breasts

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cups sour cream

2 chopped celery stalks

1 med chopped onion

mushrooms(I added these to the recipe)

Parmesan cheese

salt/pepper

garlic powder

Step 1: Break spaghetti into 1 inch pieces and boil; drain.

Step 2: Cut chicken into chunks and brown in butter. Season with salt/pepper and garlic powder.

Step 3: Add onion, celery, mushrooms and cook until crisp tender

Step 4: In large bowl, mix everything together except cheese and pour mixture into a buttered

9 x13 pan. Top with Parmesan cheese

Step 5: Bake for 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

Kitchen Play by Play: Worst yet. Dishes galore, messy and definitely took longer than 20 minutes total prep. I'm sure that it wasn't supposed to take as long as it did, but I was not on my game tonight. I was on the phone with Heather; I was cooking noodles, chopping veggies, measuring sour cream. Than I was browning chicken, adding veggies and trying to toss it all together. It was a mockery. The smell was great though. I did spill a few noodles on the floor and good thing as there is no way that I would have fit even one more noodle in the pan. It was filled to the brim. Nothing light about this meal except the sour cream.

The finished product: I forgot to take a pic until after we hacked into it...Sorry!

The Verdict:

Nicole- The whole process was enough to make me want to throw the finished product out the window even before tasting it, but I kept my cool and plated the noodle monstrosity for the three of us. It was good. It didn't knock my socks off, but it was tasty. I would like more garlic powder and would probably leave out the celery next time. The celery was still a little too crisp for me so it was a weird texture to encounter with noodles. I'm having a hard time with the rating though because I would like to give it a 3 based on taste, but it is difficult for me to say that it is worth another kitchen nightmare. So I guess, Taste 3. My kitchen experience 2.

Paul-gives it a 3. "looked good, expectations were high, but lacked a little flavor and maybe could have used some Gruyere cheese." " It would probably be really good with Gruyere."

Austin- wasn't feeling it which is shocking giving his strong liking for noodles. He wasn't digging the celery either. He kept finding the celery pieces and putting them to the side.