Chicken Alfredo lasagna with spinach for a crowd-pleasing dinner: Try the recipe

Chicken Alfredo lasagna is officially our new favorite weeknight dinner. It’s also officially saved us from our lackluster lasagna rut. 

"We make a lot of pasta at our house. With nine people in our family, it is an economical way to feed a crowd, quickly," says Nicole Johnson of OrWhateverYouDo.com, "Alfredo lasagna is a great way to change things up if I’ve been throwing too much red sauce at the kids lately (as I’m apt to do), and also gets some vegetables in the mix, too." 

As Johnson notes, this version contains spinach, but she’s also used broccoli and zucchini to rave reviews. 

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"This also makes great leftovers for lunches," she adds. Cook once, eat twice? Yes, please.

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna with Spinach by Nicole Johnson, OrWhateverYouDo.com

Makes 12 servings

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

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Ingredients:

For lasagna:

• 1 box lasagna noodles, parboiled
• 2 pounds mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Cooking spray

Cheese mixture

• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 egg
• 8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
• 8 ounces small curd whole milk cottage cheese

Chicken

• Salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion powder
• 4-5 inch boneless chicken breasts, sliced into 1/2 strips
• 2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil

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Spinach

• ½ teaspoon fresh garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained

Sauce

• ½ teaspoon salt, taste final product and add additional as needed
• 2-3 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, thinly sliced
• 6 tablespoons butter, salted

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Directions:

1. Prepare the bottom of a 10x13 pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 325 °F.
2. Melt butter over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add heavy cream. Keep the heat on medium-low, stirring frequently, until lightly bubbling.
3. Slowly add cheese while stirring. Turn heat down a bit and continue to cook until the desired thickness is reached.
4. Boil your noodles until they are about ½ to ⅔ done and then drain well and rinse in cold water.
5. To prepare the spinach layer, thaw and drain your frozen spinach well. I like to use a fine-mesh strainer and really squeeze all the liquid out that I can. Once it is well-drained, place it into a medium saute pan with butter, cream, nutmeg, salt and garlic. Simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the cottage cheese, ricotta, Parmesan, egg and seasonings. Mix until well combined.
7. Layer the ingredients in the pan in this order: noodles, ½ of cottage cheese mixture, all the spinach mixture, ⅓ of the mozzarella cheese, ⅓ of the sauce, noodles, another half of cottage cheese mixture, ⅓ of mozzarella cheese, ⅓ of the sauce mixture, noodles, the rest of the sauce, the rest of the mozzarella cheese.
8. Bake lasagna, covered, for 30-40 minutes. Remove the cover during the last 15 minutes of cooking to allow for slight browning of the top layer.
9. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting. While the lasagna is resting, liberally season the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and onion powder. Place the olive oil in a large skillet, and heat over medium-low heat.
10. Cook slowly over medium-low heat until no pink remains.
11. Serve chicken on top of the individual pieces of lasagna.

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This original recipe is owned by OrWhateverYouDo.com and was shared with Fox News.