You know when you have one of those moments where you are praying that
a) no one is watching, and
b) a store has no security cameras?
No, no, I didn’t steal anything, and I think my mistake can really be made by anyone. At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself.
I love automatic doors. They are so convenient, there is no straining to open, no quietly trying to pull open, with all your might, when you realize there is a large “PUSH” sign on the door…in short, easy peasy. Needless to say, when I was about to leave a store I’d popped in to with my hands full of bags, I was thankful to see that they had one of these fantastic doors.
But for some reason, this one wasn’t picking me up. Maybe I had come at it from a wrong angle?
Maybe I’m having a skinny day and it has a weight detector? (ok, you can laugh here, if you must ;)).
Maybe, I just need to get closer. And cloooser. I think my breath may have frosted the glass I was so close. What a silly door, must be broken.
Waaaiiit a minute. What is that to my left? A door handle?
Oh dear.
It’s true. I had been patiently waiting for the window to open.
Please, oh please, may there be no security footage.
It was one of those days, all day.
In better news, I do have a delicious meal to share with you. In fact, if you come over to my house for dinner in the near future, this is most likely what you will be fed. It’s so very tasty – I promise it tastes better than my pictures show. From how many different angles can I photograph of a piece of lasagne? So bear with me, and trust me on how delicious it is!
And, for those of you who need to be gluten free, I simply substituted rice lasagne noodles, and used a generous 3 tbsp cornstarch instead of flour.
Enjoy! :)
This recipe was featured on Tasty Kitchen’s Step-by-Step blog! For detailed step-by-step instructions and gorgeous photos, check it out :)
White Cheese & Chicken Lasagne (printable below)
Ingredients
- 9 lasagna noodles
- ½ cup butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 4 cups shredded mozza, divided
- 1 cup grated Parm cheese, divided
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
- 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagne noodles in boiling water for 8-10 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 flour and salt, simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan. Season with basil, oregano and ground black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture on the bottom of the 9×13 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 ¼ of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ½ cup parm cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven.
- 9 lasagna noodles
- ½ cup butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
- 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping
- Preheat oven to 350F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagne noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in flour and salt; simmer until bubbly.
- Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan. Season with basil, oregano and ground black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Spread ⅓ of the sauce mixture on the bottom of the 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer with ⅓ of the noodles, and all of the ricotta and the chicken. Arrange ⅓ of the noodles over the chicken and layer with ¼ of the sauce mixture, the spinach, and the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ½ cup parm cheese.
- Arrange remaining noodles over cheese and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven.
- Let stand 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
What are the nutrition facts on this? how many calories per serving….not that I want to watch my intake but i’m gonna have to. if you don’t know that’s okay.
This looks amazing – can I prepare ahead of time and cook later? Has anyone had good luck making ahead?
Thanks!
Hi Katie! You can prep it all and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 2-3 days before baking or freeze it for longer storage – I’ve made it ahead often. If frozen, thaw in the fridge overnight before baking as directed. Perfect for company!
Made this today but I tweaked it a bit. I put the 2 cups of mozzarella in the sauce, but I eliminated the rest of the mozzarella since I thought the 2 cups plus ricotta would be plenty rich enough. I also got this wild hair about just stirring the ricotta into the sauce. It is a bit more cheesy ‘elastic’ but it still spreads beautifully. Also, I divided the sauce into 4 (bottom of pan and top layer and the 2 layers of noodles in between), but I divided the chicken and spinach in half and put half on the first layer of noodles and the rest on the second layer of noodles. On the 3rd layer of noodles I just put the cheese sauce. I did sprinkle about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan on each layer and the top. Also, used about 13 noodles in my 9×13 pan, overlapping them just slightly and then cutting one in half to lay at the bottom end. It came out beautifully and we all thought the additional 2 cups of mozzarella would’ve been too much. This was perfect!
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback! Sounds amazing :)
Hi Anna,
I made this a few weeks ago, using kale instead of spinach, and the kids loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
Deanna
Ooh, great idea! I am always wondering if there’s a recipe out there that could convince me to enjoy kale, and I think this may be the one!
I made this last night! I made some modifications because I eat low carb. Like using zucchini slices instead of noodles, much less flour and milk in the sauce, and it came out fantastic!! Amazing flavor. My kids and husband LOVED it! Thanks for the great recipe. I will be posting it with a link to your post today on my blog!
So glad you liked it! Heading over to check out your version :)
For some reason it just posted. Also posted the nutritional breakdown. :)
Would love to try this with the zukenie, did you pre cook the zukenie ? Also would like the nuternal break down.
Thank you
Terri
Here is the link to the recipe with the zucchini version and the nutrition facts for that! I’ve never tried it myself but it sounds great :) http://loveandlifeasagourmetwife.com/2013/04/17/chicken-and-white-cheese-zucchini-lasagna/
Hi
Can you use no boil noodles in this recipe.
Hi Jackie,
They will work fine, just make sure you have them FULLY covered with sauce in order for them to fully cook and not stay crunchy. You may want to add a bit more liquid to your sauce to be safe!
I made this today and it came out great. I didn’t use as much cheese and substituted the milk for soy milk. Yummy!
I made this last night and swear to all things glorious, I died on the first bite.
A bit put off on the amount of butter, but still great and the best part this dish is highly editable as I didn’t put too much spinach on it and I threw on two TSP of parsley.
Haha, thanks for your comment Mike, it made me laugh out loud :). It’s definitely customizable, which is what makes it really great, especially after getting hooked on it by trying it for the first time :).
Do you ever post the nutrition facts with the recipes?
Hi Jo,
We haven’t yet, it’s something we could consider doing though, I guess it would just take adding all the ingredients together and dividing by the number of servings… thanks for the idea!
This looks fabulous! I’m definitely pinning this for later! Thanks for visiting my site :)
I just made this last night! Fabulous! Featured on my blog today!
Made this last night. It took me longer than the suggested time, but that didn’t bother me…I love to cook! I substituted cottage cheese for the ricotta since we don’t like ricotta and put a little extra mozzarella on top. Loved it! This with some garlic bread and a salad was a perfect dinner! Thank you for a great recipe!!!
This was a hit! Made it for dinner tonight and it was absolutely fantastic. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment Kerstin… so glad you liked it!
So, so yummy! I made it for dinner tonight and we all devoured it! Thanks for this recipe. I give it 5 stars.
Thanks for your comment Evelyn, so glad you liked it! :)
This lasagna looks so delicious. Creamy and rich. Thanks to all for the gluten free suggestions. Take care, BAM
Haha! Yes, there are times when I pray there are no security cameras too. The lasagna looks great. Will surely try it one of these days!
This lasagna is amazing. Frozen spinach is a staple in my freezer, but for some reason I was out (I bet my husband forgot to get it – yea, that sounds good- haha). Anyway, I substituted the spinach for finely chopped broccoli. Very pleased with the results!! I also added a little bit of cottage cheese to the ricota. Yummy!
Thanks so much for your comment, and so glad you liked it!! I did the same thing, but actually substituted all cottage cheese for the ricotta since the grocery store was out, and it was delicious! :)
Legally, doors are all supposed to push to open. This was done in order to avoid times, which have happened, when people were in a rush to get out, like in a fire, and some were crushed to death by the crowd because they couldn’t get the doors opened because they had to pull them open against the crowd. Sad but true.
Thats funny with the door. At our Starbucks the doors are backwards I think for the handicaps. Well when you walk in you pull open, on the way out you push. Every-time I go with my co workers they pull to try to get out Starbucks and I just stand there snickering to myself as there pulling and pulling. There probably thinking why didn’t she tell me. I don’t know why but I always laugh.
Your lasagna looks amazing!!! I’ll most likely give this a try, maybe tonight, I need to check to see if I have all the ingredients.
Have a nice weekend!
PS For gluten free, also make sure your chicken stock is gluten free. Regular chicken stock made from products like OXO and Bovril are hidden sources of gluten.
Will definitely try it! I love the print feature on your recipes now. Very handy:)
This looks incredible. I love lasagna of any kind!
love that you guys are sharing dinner ideas!! this one looks SUPER yummy :) can’t wait to try it!!