This creamy and comforting Turkey Tetrazzini is one of my favorite meals to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. It works equally well with leftover chicken and I often buy rotisserie chicken to use.
In my opinion, the mushrooms and peas are essential for a tetrazzini. They’re my favorite part and I’ll admit that whenever I dish myself up, I always dig for a few extra mushrooms. A splash of sherry and a pinch of nutmeg also add wonderful flavor to a tetrazzini.
That being said, Turkey Tetrazzini is very adaptable and forgiving and you can leave any of these ingredients out to suit your taste. Try adding broccoli or even green beans instead of peas or mushrooms.
Because when you have a creamy, cheesey sauce pretty much anything tastes good in it.
Quite a few Turkey Tetrazzini recipes use Condensed Soup to make preparation quick and easy and I make a lot of casseroles using condensed soup, including tetrazzini on occasion. But this one is from scratch with a creamy sauce made from butter, flour, chicken broth, milk, and heavy cream. If you don’t like cooking with canned soup, this is a great recipe to try.
Like most casseroles, Turkey Tetrazzini can be made ahead of time. Another reason it’s a family favorite. Just get it all assembled, wrap with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Take it out, discard the plastic wrap and add a few minutes to the baking time. You have yourself a hassle free weeknight meal.
Everyone will want seconds of this hot and creamy meal.
Turkey (or Chicken) Tetrazzini with peas and mushrooms and a creamy, cheesy sauce is always a family favorite.
- 12 ounces spaghetti, snapped in half
- 6 tablespoons butter, divided
- 8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Sherry
- 3 cups chopped cooked turkey or chicken
- 1/2 to 1 cup frozen green peas, defrosted
- 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup homemade bread crumbs or panko crumbs
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta. Cook to al dente and drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- While water is coming to a boil, add 2 tablespoons butter to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until brown. Remove mushrooms to a bowl and set aside.
- Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter to skillet along with flour. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.
- Gradually add the chicken stock, milk, and heavy cream, whisking well to avoid lumps. Cook until smooth and bubbly, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add salt, thyme, pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice, Sherry, and mushrooms.
- Stir in turkey, peas and Parmesan cheese. Check for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if desired.
- Add cooked pasta to the skillet, or if not enough room combine both in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add some of the reserved cooking liquid if mixture is too dry.
- Transfer mixture to a greased 9X13-inch baking dish.
- In a small bowl combine bread crumbs, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Scatter on top of casserole. Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes. If desired, broil briefly to brown top.
Excellent recipe and post! My husband and I loved this. I will definitely keep making it in the future! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Making this again this afternoon but with left over chicken instead of turkey. We love it as a healthier alternative to the canned soup version.
I just made this with rotissire chicken. AWESOME, thank you I can’t stop eating it,
My daughter was going to toss a turkey carcass that had so much on it that I thought of this dish. I mentioned it to her but the she wasn’t interested….what is up with the 20-50+ generation. Haven’t they heard of “waste not want not ” rule?
Maybe you raised her wrong
Not a nice thing to say Ash.Debby
Sounds like your parents raised YOU wrong. RUDE.
My family’s not a fan of mushrooms or peas so I substituted with one large red pepper that I diced and sautéed in 2 tablespoons of butter. I also used broccoli which I steamed for about 6 minutes. This will be the new go to post-Thanksgiving meal.
Wow, this was really great! It had so much flavor, the only thing I added was garlic. To the reviewer who claimed it had no flavor, either you are a terrible cook and messed up the recipe or your taste buds are off. If you know anything about cooking, you should know to taste and season along the cooking process. I loved this dish very much, thanks for a great recipe.
I’m sorry. Made it last night and was unfortunately really disappointed. No flavor. Is it a misprint or does it really call for only 1/4 tsp of nutmeg & thyme? That’s not even enough to flavor HALF of this dish. The Sherry would have been really nice if I could actually taste it! I used 8 cloves of garlic too and added an onion…still, no flavor. I don’t know, I’m glad everyone else is enjoying it but I’m not happy. I’ll give it another try, but next time I will make sure to add more flavor.
Can this be split in two and half frozen for later?
This recipe is delicious! I used chicken and substituted celery for the grren peas and also used two 8 oz containers of whole mushrooms, sliced. YUMMY! I will be making this again!
So glad you liked it Robin! I think it makes such a great family meal. Have a great weekend. 🙂
Oh WOW! We had this for Supper tonight. I was trying to use leftover turkey and this was delicious! My two-year-old went back for seconds. I didn’t have sherry, but I am sure that adds nicely to the rich flavor.
what can you use as we don’t have sherry in our home and would never buy it.
You can use white wine instead or just leave it out altogether. The sherry adds some flavor but it’s not necessary.
I am making this for dinner tomorrow night and I can already tell that it will be a hit! Thanks!!
I have shamefully never eaten/made tetrazzini before.. what a delicious recipe! You definitely have inspired me to recreate this soon. Love it!
I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’ve never made tetrazzini at home! Yikes – bad food blogger 🙂 haha This looks wonderful – and such a great way to re-purpose leftover chicken or turkey!
Well hello there gorgeous comfort food casserole that I will be making all winter long! 😀
This Turkey Tetrazzini looks soooo delicious, even better that it’s made from scratch! Pinned!
I couldn’t agree more that peas and mushrooms are essential in a tetrazzini. I haven’t made one is so long, but now after seeing your recipe I think this will be dinner tonight! Pinning
Oh wow, it’s been years. Love this recipe, it’s a wonderful retro dish that I ate when I was a kid. Love it!
Yum! I loooove turkey tetrazzini! When I was a kid, my mom would always make it after Thanksgiving with leftover turkey—Soo good. 😀 I can’t wait to try you version! It looks like comfort food x1000.
This turkey tetrazzini looks incredible! Quick meals that you can make ahead of time are my favorite! Yup, – I’m with you – the peas and mushrooms are essential in here 🙂
I want seconds and I haven’t even tried it yet! It looks delicious! I would probably fight you over those mushrooms! Yumm. ps- I want that baking dish so badly!
This dish sounds like the perfect comfort food! Love that you can easily customize it to fit your taste. Wonderful recipe!
Turkey tetrazzini is the perfect comfort food to me! This dish is just calling my name, Christin. It looks incredible! And I love your casserole dish, too! 🙂
I am not a huge fan of canned condensed soups in casseroles – so this is perfect! I might replace the cream with a lactose free version but otherwise am so loving this one-dish recipe!
I agree — peas and mushrooms — absolutely essential for tetrazzini. Tetrazzini is one of those dishes that I will never get sick of, it’s one of my favorite comfort meals!
I was just thinking I needed to make chicken tetrazzini soon, and it’s so great with turkey, too! I made it last year with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. My stomach is now growling, and I gotta make this soon!
This is taking me back to childhood! My mom used to make chicken tetrazzini all the time. I loved it of course, probably because it is so fun to say tetrazzini, felt like a big word when I was little. I love that you made your own sauce rather than buying canned. I bet that makes it taste much better.
This looks way too good! Had to pin it!