Chicken tetrazzini

A few weeks before the schoolyear ended, I bought a kilo of boned chicken breast to make chicken salad sandwiches for the kids to bring to school. I boiled and flaked all the chicken to save time. The following day, the kids were bored with chicken salad sandwich. I was stuck with all that flaked chicken breast. Solution? Pasta. Problem was, if I used all that chicken in one pasta dish, I would be stuck with pasta leftovers after one day–leftovers I would not be able to recycle. A better solution : two pasta dishes that are radically different from one another. Chicken tetrazzini would be very simple to prepare and I could use half of the remaining flaked chicken breast instead of letting it sit in the fridge. The remaining half would go into the chicken macaroni with tomato sauce.

Ingredients :

150 g. of dried spaghetti (fetuccine will likewise be good)
2 onions, diced
1-1/2 to 2 cups of cooked and flaked chicken breast
1/8 c. + 1-1/2 tbsp. of butter, softened
2 tbsp. of all-purpose flour
1-1/2 c. of chicken stock
1/2 tsp. finely minced fresh parsley
grated cheese

Cooking procedure :

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain. Transfer to a bowl, stir in 1 tbsp. softened butter.

In a saucepan, melt 1/2 tbsp. of butter. Saute onions until transparent. Add chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until chicken is heated through. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

Over medium heat, melt 1/8 c. of butter in the saucepan. Add flour all at once, stirring briskly to avoid lumps from forming. Stir until the flour is cooked (the mixture will be thick and golden in color). Pour in the stock little by little, stirring the sauce constantly. Heat the butter-flour-stock mixture until it starts to boil then return the chicken and onions to the saucepan. When the sauce starts to simmer, turn off the heat and add the chopped parsley. Adjust the seasonings. Add the buttered spaghetti to the sauce. Toss lightly. Transfer to a serving plate and top with grated cheese. Serve at once with garlic bread.