The former Real Madrid midfielder, who played for the club between 2000 and 2003, described Tchouameni - who has agreed to renew his contract until 2031 - as the kind of player a manager should never want to lose.
"That type of player, I would never let leave a team," Makelele said, praising the Frenchman's reliability throughout a difficult season for the club. "He was the only regular player from start to finish."
Makelele also backed head coach Jose Mourinho's judgement in prioritising the renewal.
"Mourinho isn't stupid, he's a good coach, one of the best coaches. He knows he's going to need a strong group to be able to win La Liga," he said.
Turning to Mbappe, the 53-year-old pushed back against criticism the France captain has faced over his individualism on the pitch.
"I don't agree. A lot of people are criticising Mbappe. It's about the team, but he's a forward. A forward always wants to score," he told Sergio Quirante. The former Real Madrid, Celta, Chelsea, Nantes, Marseille and PSG midfielder argued the issue lies not with Mbappe's commitment but with the profile missing from Madrid's midfield.
"Real Madrid don't have that type of central midfielder who carries the ball and breaks lines. They need a player like that, who gets the ball forward quickly for the attackers, for him, for Vinicius and for the players ahead of him," he said.
"He often comes deep to get the ball in midfield, and then who's going to be up front? When he's up there, he's scoring," Makelele added, pointing to the positional demands sometimes placed on Mbappe as part of the problem.
Tchouameni's new deal was announced this week, with Real Madrid moving to secure the France international's future after a turbulent campaign in which his place in the side had appeared less certain than in previous seasons. The 26-year-old has established himself as one of Madrid's most versatile options since arriving from Monaco, capable of playing both in central midfield and at centre-back, a quality Makelele suggested underlines his value to any coach building a title-winning side.
Mbappe, for his part, has continued to face scrutiny over his relationship with the rest of Madrid's attack, with questions persisting about how well his game complements team-mates such as Vinicius Junior. Makelele's intervention comes at a time when Real Madrid, under Mourinho, are reshaping their midfield with an eye on returning to the top of La Liga next season, having endured a difficult campaign by their own recent standards.
The Frenchman's own career, which took him from Madrid to Chelsea via Celta, Nantes, Marseille and PSG, was built on precisely the deep-lying, line-breaking role he believes is currently missing from the Real Madrid side.