Garlic and Chicken Stuffed Shells

in Chicken & Turkey, Freezer Friendly, Pasta

Garlic & Chicken Stuffed Shells

The pasta shells we had for dinner aren’t the only things stuffed right now. Ugh, somebody please take this fork away!

After a ridiculously busy few weeks at work and an illness, I decided that I would try to do that whole make-one-freeze-one thing. We’ve eaten out more during the last two weeks than all of April and it’s noticeable. Really noticeable.

I began my search for freezable dinners a few days ago and was immediately discouraged. I guess being a child of the Google era has spoiled me a bit but even Google couldn’t easily deliver results for fresh and tasty recipes for the freezer. Everything was either lasagna or some soupy chicken-rice bake with cream of celery soup. [Shudder] Celery.

Allrecipes has a recipe for stuffed shells that received raves on the newlywed cooking forum that I frequent. I had my husband taste-test the filling as we went along to make sure that he would eat it 🙂

Garlic and Chicken Stuffed Shells

A lighter chicken stuffed shells recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 box uncooked jumbo pasta shells (about 40-50)
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked and coarsely shredded)
  • 30 oz fat free ricotta cheese
  • 1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp parsley
  • 4 large basil leaves
  • 1/3 cup fat-free half and half
  • 28 oz pasta sauce (jarred, canned, homemade)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta shells according to package directions and drain. Separate onto a cutting board to prevent the shells from sticking. Add ingredients garlic through fat-free half and half to a food processor and process until just combined. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if necessary.
  2. Spoon 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Fill the cooked shells with ricotta mixture (about 2 Tbsp) and place filled-side up in the baking dish. Spoon as much of the remaining sauce over the shells as desired. Bake covered with foil for 15-20 minutes, remove foil and continue baking for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.
  3. Note: I baked 15 shells in a small baking dish for dinner and separated the rest into single-serving (7 shells) oven/freezer-safe dishes for future meals. To cook from the freezer, thaw the dish in the fridge overnight and bake as directed above.

Notes

Yields: 6-8 servings

Adapted from AllRecipes

Estimated time: 40 minutes

8 comments… add one
  • Shawnda, I’d gladly take the fork away from you – so I could attack these! 🙂
    They look so delicious!

  • I love the freezer safe dinner concept. Unfortunately an apartment sized freezer doesn’t lend itself to storing more than I’m going to make in a week. there’s just no room in there until it’s getting close to payday.

  • Best title to a blog post that I have seen in a while. I tell myself that every day.

    I never get tired of seeing stuffed shells. I could lick the screen there.

  • Looks good and healthy!

  • Hi There,
    Just to let you know that I have linked to your Strawberry Shortcake
    Trifles as they looked so yummy! I am doing a piece on National
    Vegetarian Week here in the UK. Hope you don’t mind!

  • Yum! I am with Patricia. I might have to fight for the use of the fork! 🙂

  • If you’re ever in Chicago, we must to a freezer food day and I’d love to share with you how I managed to cook a months worth of meals (not just lasagna or casseroles) all stuffed in my apartment sized freezer. 🙂

  • The women who started Dream Dinners published a cookbook called, not suprisingly, Dream Dinners. The recipes I have tried have been great but I do tweak them a little to include less processed ingredients and/or less sodium. The full title is “Dream Dinners: Turn Dinnertime into Family Time with 100 Assemble-and-Freeze Meals” by Stephanie Allen and Tina Kuna.

    There’s also another one that’s published by the Super Suppers company called “Super Suppers Cookbook,” but I haven’t tried that one.

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