Chicken Tetrazzini

This is a HUGE recipe. I bought all the ingredients and then thought, wow this seems like an awful lot of food. I re-checked the recipe when I got home and it serves 12! I ended up just cutting all the ingredient amounts in half and it was plenty for our little family of 3. On the other hand, the recipe book also includes instructions on freezing it, so if you do make the whole recipe amount, you've got easy to follow instructions for keeping half of it good for another meal in a month.

This was not my absolute favorite recipe, but it was pretty easy and tasty. You can't go wrong with pasta and cheese, am I right?

• 16 oz vermicelli
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 4 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 (10.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 (10.75 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10.75 oz) can cream of celery soup
• 8 oz sour cream
• 6 oz sliced mushrooms, drained
• 2 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Cook vermicelli according to package directions; drain. Return to pot and toss with chicken broth. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together chopped cooked chicken and next 8 ingredients in a large bowl; add vermicelli and toss well. Spoon chicken mixture into 2 lightly greased 11 x 7 inch baking dishes. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Bake covered for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

TO MAKE AHEAD: Freeze unbaked casserole up to 1 month. Thaw casserole overnight in refrigerator. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature and bake as directed.

NOTES: I used frozen, grilled Tyson chicken strips for this recipe. I just defrosted them and snipped them into smaller pieces with scissors. I also, as usual, left out the mushrooms. Yuck!

Serves 12
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Recipe from America's Best Recipes: Comfort Food