Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Last night I cooked!  I'm going to try to get on a cooking kick.  We'll see how that goes since tonight we're eating at Iris.  oops.  Anyway, I made Classic Chicken Tetrazzini from September's Southern Living and it was delicious!  So I thought I'd share the recipe and some pics.  Here's the recipe:

Classic Chicken Tetrazzini (click on this link for the actual recipe to print)
This is the full recipe, but I split it in half and it was enough for 2 with leftovers.

1.5 (8 oz) packages vermicelli rice (I used Chicken Rice a Roni and cooked it without adding the flavor pack)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups milk
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp. chicken bouillon granule
1 tsp. seasoned pepper
2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided
4 cups diced cooked chicken
1 (6 oz) jar sliced mushrooms, drained
3/4cup slivered almonds

Boil the chicken.  I split the recipe so I used 3 chicken breasts and that ended up being about 2 cups, so for the full recipe, use 6. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare pasta acoording to package directions. 

I made the Rice-A-Roni according to the directions on the back and left out the chicken seasoning pack.

While the rice is cooking, melt butter in a dutch oven over low heat.  I used our fabulous red Le Creuset dutch oven that was a wonderful wedding gift from Michelle Drinkard!  Go ahead and measure out the flour, milk, wine, bouillon, pepper, and 1 cup parmesan cheese because you have to do some continuous stirring once you start.  Once the butter is melted, whisk in 1 cup of flour until smooth. It should look like this:  

Next, gradually whisk in milk and wine:

Cook this over medium heat, whisking constantly, 8 to 10 minutes until mixture is thickened and bubbly:

Next, whisk in the bouillon granules, seasoned pepper, and 1 cup parmesan cheese.

Congrats, you just made Mornay sauce from scratch!!  Remove it from the heat.  Your chicken should be finished boiling now and the rice should be finished.  Drain the chicken and shred or dice it.  Drain your jar of mushrooms and add them to the sauce.  Next add your cooked rice and chicken.

Spoon the mixture lightly into a greased 13x9 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle the slivered almonds over the top (the almonds were yummy on top so I'd add extra).  Then sprinkle on the remaining 1 cup of parmesan cheese.  Tada!  Bake it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  It came out looking like this:

It was delicious!  Probably not the most healthy meal ever, but very good.  Southern living says it "freezes beautifully".  We had it with a salad with mandarin oranges and feta cheese with balsamic vinegarette dressing.  Yum!