White Chicken Lasagna

So White Chicken Chili has just passed Greek Chicken as the most popular recipe on my blog to date.  So to honor White Chicken Chili I have tried a new recipe.  White Chicken Lasagna!  I am not big on Alfredo sauce, but I have tried to up the flavor and decrease the fat in this recipe.  I'll let you know how it tastes after we bake it. =)  

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breasts                   4.19
1 onion                                            .40
3 celery ribs                                     .30
1 bay leaf
3 carrots                                          .30
30 oz reduced fat ricotta                 2.26
     (or cottage cheese)
1 egg                                                .13
1 box chopped frozen spinach         1.42
   (thaw and squeeze out any liquid)
1/4 cup diced roasted red pepper     .40
2 jars Alfredo sauce                         3.56
  (I used roasted garlic Alfredo)
2 C shredded mozzarella cheese       2.42
1 C shredded Parmesan cheese     1.20
6 slices provolone cheese              1.19
salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg

Directions:

Trim the skin off the chicken and poach chicken on the stove with roughly chopped 1/2 onion, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot and bay leaf.  Cook over low heat for 30 min. 

In another large pot boil water and cook lasagna noodles until barely done.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

Slice 1/2 onion, celery and two remaining carrots and saute for 3 min on stove top.

In a medium bowl combine ricotta, egg, diced roasted red pepper, spinach and sauteed onion, carrot and celery.  Add a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Set aside.   It looks wonderfully colorful! 

Once chicken is poached drain off the broth (I save it for future recipes) and chop the chicken.

In a medium to large mixing bowl combine the two jars of Alfredo and chopped chicken.

  Now it's time to start layering.  I lay out 3 glass bread pans and pour a little Alfredo sauce in the bottom to keep the noodles from sticking.  Cut 6 lasagna noodles to fit the length of the bread pans and put two noodles in each pan.

Now add two to three scoops of veggie ricotta filling in each pan. 

Then top with two to three spoonfuls of chicken Alfredo sauce.

Then sprinkle a few Tablespoons of Mozzarella and one Tablespoon of shredded Parmesan cheese in each pan.

Now repeat two more times.  Noodles, veggie ricotta, chicken Alfredo and cheese.  Top with two slices of provolone each.

Now I cover each pan with foil and label them. 

When baking make sure you loosen the foil a little so it doesn't stick to the provolone.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60 min.   Freeze the remaining lasagnas and make sure to thaw in the fridge for two days before baking.  These are very thick lasagnas and feed 4-6 people.   I was able to make 3 lasagnas and 6 cups of chicken broth for $6.08 a meal.

If you do not like the hassle of lasagna here are some short cuts for you!  Forget the onion, celery, carrot and roasted red pepper.  Buy a rotisserie chicken already cooked and shred it up.  Buy the no boil lasagna noodles and add about 6-8 oz of milk to the Alfredo sauce so the noodles have some liquid to absorb.  This should save you a lot of time.

Also...I think this would be great without the chicken and you can add more veggies.  Zucchini would be awesome in this, and maybe mushrooms if you like to eat fungus.  (I don't particularly like fungus, but to each their own.)  We loved our chicken lasagna.  I hope you give it a try.  Here it is baked! 

Enjoy!
Christie aka Keeza