Now retro, chicken àla king, chicken divan, chicken tetrazzini and tuna-noodle casserole are four of my favorite vintage recipes. When one writes a cooking blog long enough, one learns that sharing vintage recipes is as important as sharing trending, innovative new ones. Experience has taught, "what's old is always new to someone", and cooks of all experience levels appreciate learning about it. Experience has also taught: "what's old has often been lost to someone", as many times, these retro classics, which evoke fond memories, have been lost (grandma never taught it, shared it, or worse, never wrote it down), or, it got tossed (instead of being handed down from generation to generation). I am grateful mom and grandma gave me their recipes.
My recipe for All-American Chicken à la King:
À la king is a refined, American restaurant dish consisting of poached white-meat chicken or turkey stirred into a silky sherry-cream béchamel-type sauce containing mushrooms, and, green peppers (peas are substituted by people who don't care for peppers). Classically, it's served served over toast points, puff pastry or rice (noodles or pasta are acceptable substitutions).
My recipe for Classic & Comforting Chicken Divan:
Chicken divan is a baked casserole containing poached white-meat chicken and blanched broccoli florets enrobed in béchamel sauce (it's called Morney sauce if cheese is added). It was invented in the 1940's and was a popular, medium-budget chicken entrée on the menus of fine-dining restaurants and country club catering menus during the 1960's and 70's,
Get tangled up in my recipe for Chicken or Turkey Tettrazini:
Tetrazzini is a rich dish of cooked, stranded pasta (angel hair or thin spaghetti) tossed with chards of cooked poultry (all-white chicken or turkey breast) or pieces of succulent seafood (never red meat) enrobed in a sherry-cream Parmesan-cheese sauce. Lightly sautéed mushrooms (a requirement for the dish) get tossed in, along with some optional steamed peas and carrots too.
Tune into my Made-from-Scratch Tuna Noodle Casserole:
Tuna Noodle Casserole is a classic 1950's retro dinner made from canned tuna, peas, onions, noodles and a creamy sauce (that in the past meant using canned cream of mushroom soup -- not in my recipe). Once in the casserole, it gets topped with with a crunchy layer of breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. It was touted as a dish that was ready to eat in under 45 minutes.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2022)
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