White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Tuesday: White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Pretty good! I was pleased with how this turned out. I made a few adjustments to attempt to lighten up the dish. Just a little something was missing, but I can't pin point what it is.  The Mister even picked up on it.  To the dish's credit, at least he ate half of it before he brought out the hot sauce.   The next time I make this I'll probably add something more...not sure what yet.  I'll have to think on that some more.  Here’s the recipe with my changes shown below in parenthesis.

Adapted from White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles (Barilla no boil lasagna noodles)
1/2 cup butter (¼ cup)
1 onion, chopped (med yellow onion)
1 clove garlic, minced (pre-minced)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chicken broth (16 oz container of low sodium chicken broth)
1 1/2 cups milk (skim milk)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided (½ c: ¼ c in cheese sauce, ¼ c in ricotta/spinach cheese mixture)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups ricotta cheese (15 oz container of low fat ricotta)
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat (rotisserie chicken, 2 breast and 1 thigh, skinned and cubed)
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (1 pack of spinach)
1 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used an extra 1 Tbsp in my ricotta mixture)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping (1 cup of Italian blend shredded cheese, reserved for the top)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Season with the basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.

**(I mixed the spinach, ricotta, ¼ c Parmesan and 1 Tbsp fresh parsley together to make a cheese mixture before layering.)

Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta, and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken, and layer with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese, and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

**(I layered in the following way: 1/4 sauce, 3 noodles, 1/2 ricotta/spinach cheese mixture, 1/2 chicken, 1/4 of sauce, 1/3 of remaining mozzarella cheese, 3 noodles, ricotta/spinach cheese mixture, rest of chicken, 1/4 of sauce, 1/3 of remaining mozzarella cheese, 3 noodles, rest of sauce, rest of mozzarella cheese and extra Italian blend shredded cheese, sprinkled with fresh parsley.)

Bake 35 to 40 minutes in the 350 degree preheated oven.

**(I baked covered w/ foil for 50 minutes because of the no boil noodles)

Source: White Cheese Chicken Lasagna
Rating: 3 forks