A comforting white sauce lasagna with chicken
Difficulty: Easy
Portions: 6
Preparation: 40 min.
Baking time: 55 min.
Let's not lie to ourselves here, while some lasagna recipes are healthy there are many lasagna recipes which are to be kept for special occasions or days of celebration...
And really there is nothing wrong with indulging every once in a while but just as long as we remember when we are actually celebrating and what we eat the next day. Just my two cents about health and lasagnas... now here is a delicious recipe for a lasagna with chicken in a white sauce...
Ingredients:
* 9 lasagna noodles
Stuffing
* 1 onion, chopped finely
* 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 2 lb. packed fresh baby spinach
* 1 and 1/2 lb. (675 g) ground chicken
* Salt and pepper
Bechamel
* 1/3 cup (75 ml) butter
* 6 tablespoons (90 ml) white all-purpose flour
* 3 and 1/4 cups (800 ml) milk
* 1 pinch ground nutmeg
* 1/4 cup (60 ml) grated Parmesan cheese (or Pecorino Romano)
* 1 lb. (500 g) grated Swiss cheese
Instructions
Boil the lasagna noodles and reserve:
1) In a saucepan with boiling salted water, boil the pasta for 7 minutes or not quite cooked. Pass under cold water to stop cooking process and slightly oil. Reserve.
Preparing the chicken and spinach
2) In a large nonstick saucepan, cook the chopped onion in one tablespoon oil. Add the minced garlic clove and cook one more minute. Finally, add spinach and cook, stirring 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Reserve.
3) In the same saucepan, brown chicken in the remaining oil, chopping it up as you cook it. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a large bowl.
Making the Bechamel
4) In the same saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and cook for one minute over medium heat setting, stirring. Gradually add milk, the pinch of nutmeg and bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Pour the bechamel over the cut up and cooked chicken we did in step 3.
Baking the chicken lasagna
5) Place rack at the center position of oven. Preheat oven to 350 ˚F.
6) At the bottom of a 13 X 9 inches lasagna pan, spread one third of the chicken in white sauce mixture. Cover with a layer of lasagna noodles and then add one third of the chicken mixture with bechamel. Again, cover with a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread the spinach mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle with Parmesan, grated, cheese. Once more lay a layer of noodles over the cheese, then add cover with what is left of the chicken bechamel mixture. Cover the top layer with the grated Swiss cheese.
7) Bake, in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Finish cooking under the "broil" setting for around 5 minutes, or until the top cheese layer gets a nice and golden color. Let stand 15 minutes prior to cutting.