Chicken and Spinach Lasagna

DIRECTIONS

Heat up a pan with three tablespoons of olive oil. Add one medium onion chopped along with 1 tsp of fresh oregano chopped and 1 tsp of fresh marjoram chopped. You can substitute one teaspoon of dried oregano if that’s what you have. ¼ tsp salt. Sautee this until soft. Add 1 lb of ground chicken. ½ tsp salt, few pinches of red chili flakes, ½ tsp garlic powder, Give it a mix and cook until golden. Make sure to stir in between and break up the meat. While the meat is cooking, heat up a pan and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add 1 lb of spinach leaves, I’m using baby spinach, you can use regular spinach, just chop it up. The baby spinach, you can use whole, there is no need for chopping. ¼ tsp salt, few pinches of red chili flakes. Stir and sautee until cooked. This happens very quickly, the spinach will wilt down and look like this in just a few minutes. Taste and add more salt or pepper if you want. Put that aside. The chicken is also cooked and ready, taste it and add more salt or pepper if you like.

Now we’ll make the sauce. Melt 3 tablespoons butter, add 3 tablespoons flour. Stir for two minutes until the raw flavor of the flour cooks out. Add 3 cups of whole milk and stir. Add ½ tsp salt, a few pinches red pepper flakes, Give it a stir and let it heat up for a few minutes. Then add ¼ cup of Pecorino Romano cheese. ¼ tsp black pepper. It’s coming to a boil. When you make a line on your spoon it should stay there, that’s how you know the sauce is done. It doesn’t need to be very thick, it should loose like this. Taste it and add more salt or pepper if you like. You want to make sure every part is seasoned before you put the lasagna together. Take a half a cup of sauce and pour it into the chicken, give it a mix. Here I have 8 ounces of ricotta cheese, add ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, tsp of oregano and marjoram chopped - you can substitute 1 tsp of dried oregano. Mix it up and the cheese is ready. I’m using a 9x13 pan to make the lasagna. Pour sauce to coat the bottom of the pan. These are no boil lasagna noodles, put them down in a single layer. Of course if you are using the pasta that needs to be boiled first, do that and then layer. Break them up if you have to. Next, spread half of the ricotta over the noodles. Half of the cooked spinach. Half of the chicken. Pour some sauce. More noodles, rest of the ricotta, spinach, chicken. Tear up some fresh basil leaves and put on top of the chicken. The remaining noodles. Pour the rest of the sauce making sure to cover the noodles so they are cooked properly.

Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and put thin slices of fresh mozzarella over the top. Put the pan back in the oven without the foil for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. You can put the pan under the broiler for a minute if you want the top to be golden brown. After you take the pan out of the oven, cover and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.  Here is a slice of the cooked lasagna. The cheese is melted on top, you can see the lovely layers of meat, cheese and spinach. This is a wonderful dish to serve your family or guests for a party. Vegetables, meat, carbs are all in one dish. I like to serve some kalamata olives on the side. The tang of the olives really cuts the richness of the lasagna.

Give this lasagna a try and let me know what you think in the comments below. Subscribe for more recipes and I’ll see you next time. Thanks for watching 🙂