Healthy Tetrazzini with Chicken and Broccoli is a simple pasta recipe with a homemade sauce! This casserole-style pasta dish is nutritious, with vegetables and whole-wheat noodles, but also a delicious comfort food recipe!
Looking for more pasta dishes? Check these out 30 Minute Simple Roasted Tomato and Sausage Pasta, Creamed Pasta with Bacon and Vegetables and Quick and Easy Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese.
Simple Chicken Broccoli Tetrazzini
Hello all!
After a long holiday weekend filled with family reunions, swimming parties, and a birthday party, I’m feeling super ready to eat well again. I love to enjoy party food but I also love to get back into a healthier routine once the parties are over. And there’s no better time to start than today. Here’s a great recipe for healthy tetrazzini with chicken and broccoli for you to make tonight. It’s quick, easy, delicious, and healthy!
The bones of this healthy tetrazzini recipe come from my Aunt RaNae out of our family cookbook that my sister and I printed a few years ago. I loved when she made her version when I was a kid! In the picture I used a fettuccine noodle even though the recipe calls for thin spaghetti (it’s the only kind of whole wheat noodle the store has here!). I would recommend finding the thin spaghetti; the texture is just better with it. Add a quick homemade sauce, some chicken, and broccoli, and you’ve got yourself a meal in a dish.
I served this healthy tetrazzini with some cantaloupe and a spinach salad for a complete meal that we all loved. Plus it made enough that I had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Gotta love that!
For this recipe, I recommend:
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What does al dente mean?
In Italian, al dente means “to the tooth”. This means that the noodle will feel firm when you bite down on it with your front teeth.
Should you rinse pasta?
Should you add salt to pasta water?
Yes! A general rule is to add 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of noodles. If you don’t salt your water, your pasta will be very under seasoned.
Healthy Chicken and Broccoli Tetrazinni
- Prep Time: 25 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 1 hr 5 min
- Yield: Serves 8 1x
Description
Healthy Tetrazzini with Chicken and Broccoli is a simple pasta recipe with a homemade sauce! This casserole-style pasta dish is nutritious, with vegetables and whole-wheat noodles, but also a delicious comfort food recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 pound whole wheat thin spaghetti, broken in half and then cooked al dente
- 1 package frozen broccoli
- 2 cups cooked chicken
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 7 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and salt and stir to combine. Cook the butter and flour mixture for 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth to the butter mixture. Stirring constantly, gradually bring the mixture up to a boil, turn down the heat, and then simmer for an addition 2 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and Parmesan until the cheese melts.
- When the noodles are done cooking, put the frozen broccoli in the bottom of the colander before you drain the water. Pour the hot water and noodles over the top of the broccoli and stir to combine.
- Spread the cooked spaghetti and broccoli mixture in the bottom of a greased 9 by 13-inch baking dish and then pour half of the sauce over it. Top with the chicken or turkey pieces and then drizzle the remaining sauce over the top. Top with mozzerella.
- Cover and bake until hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes until the cheese is slightly browned. Let the tetrazzini cool in the pan for 10 minutes before serving.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chicken tetrazzini recipe, healthy tetrazzini recipe, chicken broccoli tetrazzini recipe, how to make tetrazzini, healthy pasta recipes, healthy pasta dishes, best chicken tetrazzini recipe
If you liked Tetrazzini with Chicken and Broccoli, try these:
- One Pot Cheesy Sausage Pasta
- How to Make Homemade Noodles
- Homemade Pumpkin Noodles
- Linguine Rosa with Shrimp
- Spinach Bacon Pasta Salad
- One Pot Pasta Primavera
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
- Cheesy Chicken Tetrazzini with Mushrooms
- Simple Italian Pasta Salad
- Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
I hope your day is great and that you enjoy this quick, easy and healthy Chicken Broccoli Tetrazzini.
This looks delicious! I’m definitely going to make it soon! And can I say again, I’m so proud of your fancy blog! You’ve created something wonderful, and I love to read your posts!
wait, i thought you knew the store owners 😉 can’t you request items?
One day, When I can eat dairy again…delicious!
Looks yummy! I’m going to try this next week!
Wow! This seems fabulous! Quick and tasty. I might try to make this for our church dinner one weekend (and many family dinners, I’m sure!). Oh, and I love the way you cook the broccoli! Nice tip!
On the menu for tomorrow – looks fab! Thanks
Did you mean to say 7T of flour? I just made this and the sauce just seemed a tad thick.
Hhhhmmm. That is the recipe but it’s always up for playing with. More liquid next go around?!
Can you put this all together and refrigerate until ready to cook?
I would sure think so… It might be a little thicker than normal because the noodles will have more time to soak up the sauce but I would totally try it (or just add like a 1/2 cup of milk to the sauce to make it a bit thinner to start with!) Let me know how it goes 🙂
Looks delicious! But, generally, it’s a 50/50 ratio for butter or oil to the flour. I’m wondering if you mistook a hand-printed 2 for a 7. Just a thought… I AM going to try this, though!!!
Hello! I am making this for dinner tonight & wonder if I can just half the recipe for an 8×8 pan since there’s just 3 of us, do you think it would still turn out ok? Thanks!
I think it’ll work great! Its not a fussy recipe at all… let mW know how it goes.
Turned out perfectly! Only thing I did differently was add garlic to the rue & used an Italian cheese blend- very easy, delicious & filling. Thank you!
Garlic is smart! So doing that next time…
How many servings does this recipe make?
It’s in a 9×13 and pretty thick, so it’ll serve 10-12 people easily at about 18 servings per pan.
I love your recipes used to look on the internet for some thing to cook I know where to go now thank you much
i wonder if you could use almond milk…..
I have no clue… do you often heat almond milk? I don’t assume it would curdle.
Just made this tonight, and it’s delicious!!
Looks great but if I was to add mushrooms to this would I have to cook them before adding?
I’d throw them in with the butter you make the white sauce with. They’ll cook right along with the sauce and it won’t be any extra effort! Mushrooms sound so good in this… great idea!
Have you actually made this? After reading reviews and doing my own minor tweaks, this turned out terrible. I noticed the excess amount of flour so decreased it to 5T. Sauteed mushrooms and garlic which I feel was necessary to give it flavor. The amount of noodles alarmed me but I did it anyway. Also the fact that you pour sauce on top so noodles burn to bottom of pan. I’m sorry but this was way too many noodles, too little chicken and too little sauce. It was a pan of sticky dry noodles. You should modify this recipe so other people don’t have the same experience.
Do you have to use frozen broccoli or can I use fresh? Also, for those that sauteed mushrooms, did you add those on at the very end or before you put it in the oven? Thank you!
Is the flour supposed to clump up?
Do you have the nutrition information? I’d especially like to know the calories and fat because I am counting calories. This looks so good!
The chicken tetrazzini is DELICIOUS! My entire family ate it up! They only asked afterward if it was healthy. 😉 Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Yay! Thanks Angela! It’s one of our favorites too and my kids gobble it up!
This can’t be terribly healthy but I made it last night with gluten free pasta, mushrooms and spinach and it was WELL RECEIVED by my family.
Will make again.
Elle…did you cook the spinach first?
Any suggestions on milk? Whole milk? 1%? Organic? And butter in all recipes – unsalted? I really want to have my family start to eat clean – we have our own chickens and garden ( would I be able to sustain it during winter in a DIY greenhouse? Loving these recipes!!
Milk is hard for me to recommend. If you can find good raw whole milk I feel like it’s the best option, but it isn’t always realistic to tell people. I buy 2% or whole organic when raw isn’t available. Again, it’s a do the best that you can thing. I do like whole or 2% though just because the fat keeps you fuller longer. Good luck Amanda!
made just as stated. needs more flavor. would suggest garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and/or can of diced tomatoes drained.
Just made this. Soooo easy and delicious. Thanks
I made exactly as the recipe stated and my son ate three helpings! As a single mom, i’m always searching for good food that is affordable and won’t go to waste. It’s was delicious as is, yet I can see where if people wanted to experiment there is plenty of room to do so. I am so glad I found your Blog!
Wow! I made this and the kids devoured it! And I can never get all 4 of them to agree on anything :)) I used 1/2 cup cheddar instead of the mozzarella cos that’s all I had, and it was still great 🙂 Thank you!
This looks so yummy Melissa. I shared it on The Mother Huddles Facebook Page. 🙂 Maria
This was delicious. I did not use mozzarella. I substituted 1 cup Cabot sharp cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan to make the cheese sauce. Turned out GREAT!!
Yay!!! Everything is better with Cabot cheese!!! I love that stuff 🙂
I was wondering how many servings are in these recipes? I do not have kids and honestly my fiance is not into healthy eating so most days it will just be me so I was wondering how much this makes so I can cut down or prepare for left overs 🙂
This makes a whole 9×13 pan, so at least 12 servings. I wouldn’t say this one was too healthy though (I mean it’s great, but it doesn’t taste like anything other than a chicken and pasta dish). I think he’ll like it 🙂 You might want to cut it in half and put it in a 9×9 pan though so that you don’t have so much. Most of my recipes serve 4-6 though.
Do you have the nutrition facts?
How much broccoli is in your package?
Do you put how many calories each serving is?
Hi! Tried this and my husband and I ate it two nights in a row, it is that good. Very forgiving recipe, found I didn’t have Parm to grate and used dried Parm (spaghetti cheese?) instead. Thanks so much for giving me another dinner to add to our rotation. Next time I will divide the pan into thirds and freeze one or two sections for ‘those’ nights…
My family likes this okay but I wasn’t really impressed. The sauce didn’t seep in to all the noodles and the whole thing was a little bland. It made a ton so we will be eating it for days though.
Do you know how many calories are in this dish? It was wonderful. My whole family really enjoyed it!