Chicken Lasagna

Hey, y’all. Welcome. Today, we’re going to make a chicken dish that’s inspired by one of my favorites, lasagna.

Why You’ll Love This

I like to shred the cheese from a block because it melts much better, it tastes much better.

Pre-shredded cheese has cellulose dust on it to keep it from sticking together, so if you can possibly do it, shred it from a block.

I use whole milk ricotta because I prefer it. It’s much creamier and smoother, and just all around, I like it better than the low fat.

If you happen to be on low carb or keto friendly diet, this is quite low carb, so that’s good too.

This is so good. It’s got lasagna flavor. It’s cheesy. It’s got all of this gooey cheese on the top.

This is a meal that your family’s going to love. So easy. So delicious.

Ingredients

two pounds of boneless chicken breast (or boneless chicken thighs)
one cup Mozzarella cheese (shredded, divided use)
two cups of marinara (whatever your favorite kind of marinara sauce is)
15 or 16 ounces Ricotta cheese (whole milk ricotta preferred)
four cloves of garlic (frozen mashed or minced)
a teaspoon of Italian seasoning (or about a tablespoon of seasoned, zesty Italian)
half a cup of Parmesan
fresh baby spinach (about a half a cup, or up to two cups chopped)
no-stick spray
salt (optional)

Instructions

Put our mozzarella cheese that we’ve grated into a bowl, and to that, we’re gonna add the Parmesan.
Mix it up really good, and then set it aside.
Take another bowl, and we’re gonna mix our ricotta.
Mash that up.
Add half of the garlic.
Mix that up.
Add your Italian seasoning.
Taste it. After you get everything mixed in, go ahead and taste it and make sure that it’s got enough flavor for you.
Add our spinach. Just mix that in really well.
Add half of our cheese mixture. Stir it up really well so that the Parmesan and the mozzarella is all mixed up.
Set that aside.
Get our 13 by nine inch baking pan, and spray that with some no-stick spray.
Put a little bit of sauce to the bottom. Spread that around.
Take the chicken breasts.
Take the remaining two cloves of garlic and spread that on the chicken.
Lightly dust with salt if you like.
Spread the ricotta mixture over the chicken.
Cover it with the marinara. Spread that around a little bit, but be gentle because you don’t want to really mix the ricotta in there.
Put that in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until you can put an instant read thermometer in it and it’ll measure 160 degrees in the center of the chicken.
At that point, pull it out of the oven.
Add the rest of the cheese to the top and put it back in the oven for just a couple of minutes.
Let that sit for just a minute to let the juices settle and let the cheese settle a little bit.

Cooking Tips

If you can possibly do it, shred it from a block.

Watch them really carefully because I wasted the first four because I put them in the microwave, and then I walked away, and when I came back, they were all burnt.

If you’re gonna use the Italian especially, remember, no salt.

Be sure to taste it. After you get everything mixed in, go ahead and taste it and make sure that it’s got enough flavor for you.

You can use probably up to two cups of chopped baby spinach for this if you want to. Just kinda depends on how your family handles it.

If you prefer to pound the chicken so you think it’ll be a little more tender or you want it to be even in size, you can go ahead and do that.

Always do that. Your oven is going to, um, different people’s ovens are going to do different things.

Sometimes the chicken does not cooperate, so be sure to either give yourself plenty of time. Usually it cooks in about 30 minutes, but give yourself 45 just in case.

If you don’t have 45 minutes, go ahead and pound the chicken thinner and that should do the trick.

I’m going to let that sit for just a minute to let the juices settle and let the cheese settle a little bit.

Serving Suggestions

I will serve this with pasta and if there’s extra marinara on it, you can just take a chicken breast and lay it on top of the cooked buttered pasta and you’re, you know, you’re good to go.

I like to serve it with pasta.

Well, y’all, this is absolutely delicious. Um, it’s easy to make. It goes together fast.

I hope you’ll try it.

Love y’all. Bye-bye.