Chicken Lasagne

Normal duties have been resumed in the Willetts household.  I am back to making my home cooking and loving every minute of it.

Tonight's meal was the Chicken Lasagne from the July Issue of Slimming World Magazine, Page 71.  I served this up with a big old jacket potato and a basic salad.  This went down a treat.  Although quite a lengthy process to prepare, it's definitely worth the wait.  I suppose you could even prepare it beforehand and then put it in the oven for the last 30 minutes cooking time.  Although not a traditional white sauce topping, it more than held it's own, the yogurt giving it a slightly tangy taste which matched the cheddar and cottage cheeses perfectly.  Packed full of vegetables this definitely makes a hearty meal for the whole family. I cooked it in a 27cm square roasting dish, and I was able to cut it into 9 generous portions, perfect if you have a large family like me, even though the recipe states that it serves 4.

Right lets get to it.

CHICKEN LASAGNE

Ready In About 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Fry Light (I just used Olive Oil)

8 Baby Leeks, Thinly Sliced

3 Garlic Cloves, Finely Chopped

2 Celery Sticks, Finely Chopped

4 tbsp Tomato Puree

2 x 400g Cans Chopped Tomatoes

1 Chicken Stock Cube, Crumbled

200g Baby Carrots, Trimmed And Halved

100g Baby Spinach Leaves, Roughly Chopped

1 tsp Dried oregano

1 tsp Dried Thyme

1/4 tsp Dried Red Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Artificial Sweetener (I omitted this from mine, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference)

A Small Handful Of Fresh Basil, Roughly Chopped

Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper

500g Skinless Chicken

10 Dried Lasagne Sheets

200g Fat-Free Natural Cottage Cheese

400g Total 0% Fat Greek Yogurt

2 Medium Eggs, Beaten

120g Cheddar Cheese, Grated

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 190C/Fan 170C/Gas 5.  Place a large pan sprayed with Fry Light (Olive Oil) over a medium heat.  Add the sliced leeks, garlic and celery and fry for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in the tomato puree, tomatoes, stock cube, carrots, spinach, dried oregano and thyme, chilli flakes, sweetener (omitted) and basil, and simmer for 25-30 minutes.  Remove from the heat, season, then stir in the leftover chicken.

SIMMERING

AFTER SIMMERING, WITH CHICKEN ADDED

3. Transfer half the chicken mixture to a large, ovenproof baking dish and top with half the lasagne sheets.  Repeat with the remaining mixture and lasagne sheets.

4. Whisk together the cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs, then season well.  Spoon the mixture over the top of the lasagne, then scatter over the Cheddar cheese.  Add a twist of black pepper and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and piping hot throughout. 

PRE-COOKING

AFTER COOKING

DISHED UP

With regard to this recipe, you were supposed to use 500g of leftover chicken from a whole chicken that you had cooked.  As I hadn't cooked a chicken, I just used two 250g packets of Tesco's own chicken breast and this did the job perfectly.

Enjoy

Fran x