Hello! How's everyone? Getting busy for New Year's Eve? Well, same over here! But before I start preparing my foods for new year's eve and before I forget, I'm posting my entry for Qurator's Hive Top Chef competition. This week's ingredient is something Creamy and I think I just have the perfect recipe for that!
Last Christmas, I made one of the recipes I've been wanting to try—Creamy Spinach and Chicken Lasagna! This was my first time to try this recipe and it turned out delicious that's why I'm also ecstatic to share it with you!
For a little backstory, the flavor Creamy Spinach had been a trending pizza flavor here in the Philippines for some years now. It has actually become my favorite pizza flavor too. Crreamy..cheesy.. The perfect kind of flavor that perfectly blends with the soft and crunchy pizza bread. Now, I've always wondered how it would taste with pasta.
I still have some leftover lasagna sheets, so I thought it's the perfect time to experiment this recipe I have in mind.
The Creamy Spinach and Chicken Lasagna filling is divided into two parts: creamy spinach with chicken filling, and the bechamel sauce.
The classic lasagna has ground meat in it so for my recipe, I used chicken, just so there's meat in it. The process of making it needs a bit of patience but it's all worth it when you finally taste it. Let's begin!
Creamy Spinach and Chicken Filling:
Bechamel Sauce:
Topping:
1️⃣ First, fill the pot with enough water to boil the chicken breasts. Bring the water to a boil and add the chicken. Boil for around 15 minutes or until the chicken meat has completely cooked.
2️⃣ Let the chicken meat cool down then proceed with shredding the meat. Set aside.
3️⃣ Drain the water used for boiling the chicken and clean the pot. Wipe excess water and put back on the stove. Then on low heat, add the butter and saute the onion until soft and translucent.
4️⃣ Then I added the white pepper. Mix.
5️⃣ Next is the flour. Mix until the flour has equally coated the onion slices. The flour helps to thicken the sauce.
6️⃣ And then the cream cheese. You mash it beforehand but I'm quite lazy so I just threw in the whole block and mashed it directly in the pot while mixing it with the other ingredients.
7️⃣ When the cream cheese has been mashed and softened, proceed with adding the all-purpose cream. Mix and continue to mash if there are still lumps of cream cheese.
8️⃣ Bring to a boil then add the broth cube and salt. Mix. You can also taste the filling at this point and adjust the taste by adding more salt if you think it needs to be more salty.
9️⃣ Then add the spinach. Mix.
🔟 Then add the shredded chicken meat. Mix until all ingredients are well-combined. Then simmer for 10 minutes, mixing occasionally. Set aside.
(I made the filling the night before to lessen my work. Just cool down the filling to room temperature before putting inside the fridge.)
1️⃣ Fill the pot with enough water and put salt. Bring to a boil, then put the lasagna sheets.
2️⃣ Follow the time instructed at the packaging to cook the pasta. Mine says to boil the pasta for 10 to 11 minutes with the pot uncovered.
Drain the water and set aside the cooked lasagna pasta.
1️⃣ In a smaller pot, put the butter and all-purpose flour. Mix.
2️⃣ Then add the evaporated milk. Stir until the flour mixture has completely dissolved.
3️⃣ Bring the mixture to a boil then add the quickmelt cheese. Continue mixing until the cheese has dissolved with the milk.
4️⃣ Last, add salt. Continue mixing occasionally until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat.
I used a 1 liter glass baking tray for my lasagna.
1️⃣ First, put a thin layer of the creamy spinach and chicken filling.
2️⃣ Then lay two lasagna sheets. Cut the sheets according to the length of your tray.
3️⃣ Now, layer enough amount of the creamy spinach and chicken filling.
4️⃣ Then layer enough bechamel sauce next.
Repeat this step two more times (lasagna sheets ➡️ creamy spinach and chicken filling ➡️ bechamel sauce)
This will give you three layers.
5️⃣ Then sprinkle grated quickmelt cheese, parmesan cheese powder, and dried ground parsley.
6️⃣ And since this is a no-bake lasagna, I used the microwave instead to melt the cheese on top. Microwave it for around 6 minutes or until you are satisfied with the melting of the cheese. Cool down a bit and it's time to eat!!!
I was able to make on two smaller disposable microwable containers.
So this recipe makes around 8 servings in total.
And here it is on my plate. The lasagna was still very hot when I transfered a serving to my plate so it wasn't able to hold the layers of pasta together. But it came out better after I chilled it and microwaved it for a minute.
There was a little excess filling and I used it as a spread for crackers. Yum!
I want to give myself a pat on the shoulder because all my efforts for making this recipe on my first try turned out good! I love the rich cream and cheese taste. I'm really satisfied and happy that I finally tried this lasagna dish I have in mind. It's a great variation when you want something different from the classic lasagna which uses tomato sauce. My Christmas has been more merry with this dish!
