Childhood Casserole

Childhood Casserole–Instant Pot spaghetti with chicken, mushrooms, celery, onion and cheese.

Childhood Casserole

This casserole is straight out of my childhood. My mom called it chicken tetrazzini and would make it often, especially when company came over. Her version required boiling a whole chicken for 45 minutes, cooking the spaghetti on the stove, sauteing the vegetables in a pan on the stove and then baking it all in the oven. My version is much more condensed, although it has all the exact same ingredients as hers. I sautéed the vegetables in the Instant Pot, added in the liquid, uncooked pasta and some rotisserie chicken, pressure cooked and finally added some cheese on top. The results were just as good as moms (almost) with a fraction of the time and effort. As I ate this, I felt like I was 10 years old again.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Butter--or olive oil
• Onion–yellow or white
• Celery
• Mushrooms–white or baby bella
• Garlic powder–or granulated garlic
• Black pepper–I like coarse black pepper
• Kosher salt
• Water
• Lipton’s dry chicken noodle soup
• Spaghetti–or angel hair, thin spaghetti, whole wheat is okay
• Chopped cooked chicken–I used rotisserie chicken that was frozen
• Sharp cheddar–or another type of cheese

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the butter and swirl around until melted. Add in the onion, celery and mushrooms and saute for 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic powder, pepper and salt. 

Pour in the water and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot. Sprinkle in the contents of the Lipton’s pouch.

Break the spaghetti in half and lay it in a criss cross pattern in the pot. Place chicken on top of spaghetti.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes on high pressure. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes. Move valve to venting and remove the lid.

Stir well. Sprinkle cheese on top and let it melt. Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Some idea of what to serve with this chicken tetrazzini are: green salad, steamed vegetables, garlic bread or breadsticks, roasted vegetables, caesar salad, fruit salad or crusty bread. If you’re wanting to go back to my childhood it would have been canned green beans and a jello salad.
• If you don’t have rotisserie chicken on hand try making a batch of this Instant Pot seasoned, shredded chicken and freezing it for quick and easy dinners like this casserole.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Other recipes you can make with mushrooms are Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff or Instant Pot Johnny Cash Rice.

Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for. 

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.