Chicken lasagne

Awesome Chicken Lasagna

Tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella: how can you go wrong? This recipe has been flying around the internet since Delish.com dumped it onto the hungry world back in February. Although their one-minute videos usually make it look like it’s going to be a snap to make, this one was not terribly difficult. The one thing that could be considered difficult though is keeping the calorie count below “belt-busting”. For some reason Delish.com never has a recipe that doesn’t include kilos of cheese, usually cream cheese, or a ton of butter … definitely not for calorie counters. I’ve scaled back the cheese a bit but feel free to trim even more. The end result still is not going to disappoint.

Ingredients

  • 1 box lasagna noodles
  • 1 glug. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 0.5 kg boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thumb-sized pieces
  • 2 tsp. dried oregano
  • kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced, divided
  • 45g. butter
  • 50g all-purpose flour
  • 600ml. milk
  • 3 cups low-moisture mozzarella, shredded and divided
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 450g ricotta (or mix “turo” with sour cream, not the same but it works)
  • 1 large egg
  • 4 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • Handful thinly sliced basil leaves (which clearly I have forgotten)
  • Balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  1. Warm oven to 190ºc. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook lasagna noodles until very al dente. Drain. (Normally for lasagna you can skip boiling first but here you need the noodles to be pliable over the chunks of chicken.)
  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Season chicken with dried oregano and salt and pepper. Cook until golden, about 8 minutes. Add balsamic and half the garlic to pan and stir until combined. Transfer to a plate.
  3. Make the sauce: Add butter to skillet over medium heat, melt, then add remaining garlic and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in flour and cook until golden, 1 minute more. Slowly pour in milk while stirring to thicken (and smooth out possible lumps), simmer until thick and creamy, 3 minutes.
  4. Add 1 cup of mozzarella and Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. In a small bowl, stir together ricotta and egg and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Assemble lasagna: In a large baking dish, spread a thin layer of sauce. Add a layer of lasagna noodles, slightly overlapping, and top with about a third of ricotta mixture, a third of tomatoes, a third of the basil, a third of the cooked chicken, another layer of sauce and a third of the remaining mozzarella. Repeat with three layers, ending with mozzarella.
  7. Place in oven uncovered and bake until bubbly and golden, 35 minutes. Garnish with more basil and a drizzle of balsamic glaze, and serve.