I never had chicken tetrazzini outside of church dinners. I didn't even know what it was called until I was, admittedly, well into adulthood. My biggest point of reference for chicken tetrazzini actually came from the E! Network show, The Soup, that ran on Friday nights from 2004-2015 and made fun of all things television. As a fan of comedy and snark, this was a show I loved to watch. This show aired a clip from Maury Povich's talk show where a woman kept stressing that her man was cheating and the woman he was cheating with made chicken tetrazzini. (You can read all about it here: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chicken-tetrazzini) Homewrecking capabilities aside, I saw the recipe, pronounced it as the lady in the clip, and knew I had to make it.
Ingredients: thin spaghetti, cream of mushroom soup, diced chicken, minced onion, bread crumbs, milk, pimiento, pepper, cheddar cheese
Step 1: Cook spaghetti in salted water. Step 2: Combine with rest of ingredients, reserving half the cheese and all of the bread crumbs. (Note: I had to look up other chicken tetrazzini recipes to learn whether or not the chicken should be cooked and what to do with the bread crumbs. I learned the chicken should be cooked, and that half the cheese and all of the breadcrumbs should be put on top of the dish before baking. I also learned that minced onion is not the same as mincing onion...) Step 3: Pour into 1.5 qt. casserole dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bread crumbs. Step 4: Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.
Chicken Tetrazzini
Recipe:
4 oz. thin spaghetti, broken in 2 pieces
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 c. diced chicken, cooked
1/4 c. minced onion
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. chopped pimiento
Dash of pepper
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
Cook spaghetti in salted water. Combine with rest of ingredients, reserving half the cheese and all of the bread crumbs. Pour into 1.5 qt. casserole dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bread crumbs. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes. Serves 4.
Source: Jan Drum, A Southern Bit of Heaven from the Families of Lawings Chapel Baptist Church, 1989