22 November, 2014
Alfredo Mancotti
Italian food gives me life. Pasta reigns king of all the starches in my book. I was in the grocery store and could not decide between manicotti or alfredo to make for dinner, so I thought….why not make them both, no wait, lets combine them into one dish.
This became a perfect balance of both dishes.
You will need:
- 3 chicken breasts, lightly sprinkled with seasoned salt and Italian seasoning
- 2 jars of alfredo sauce, the kind is up to you
- 15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
- 1 12 oz box of shells
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 2 cups Italian blend cheese
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp white salt
- 3 eggs
- parsley to top dish
Preheat oven to 450, my oven sucks so I need the really high temps, 400 should be fine for gas stoves
To start, put water in large pot to boil pasta, while waiting on your water to boil
cook seasoned chicken in shallow frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side. when chicken is halfway done, shred chicken with knife and return to pan to finish cooking
check water, if not boiling, mix ricotta, 1 cup of Italian blend cheese, white salt, Italian seasoning, and eggs into bowl. Remember to get a bowl large enough to add the chicken to
Add chicken to cheese mixture, stir
(it should be time to put your pasta in the boiling water, cook pasta until FIRM, do not cook pasta fully)
Pour 1 jar of alfredo sauce into the 9×13 glass oven safe dish
( when shells are done, rinse them with cold water to stop them from cooking, carefully use a spoon to separate shells that are stuck together)
I like to overstuff my shells like in the above picture, (you will have leftover shells if you overstuff them)
Arrange shells on top of alfredo sauce, keep shells close together, place open side of shells to the side
Pour the 2nd jar of alfredo on top of shells.Top with 1 cup of Italian blend cheese, sprinkle parsley on the top to make it pretty
Cover tightly with foil, and cook about 20-30, or until heated throughout.
To brown the top of the dish, broil on high for a couple minutes, watch carefully as the top of the pasta is exposed and will get hard if to much heat is put to it.
Allow dish to sit about 10 minutes before serving
YAY! perfect.
This dish is sure to please, it is flavorful and filling.
I think the diffulty is medium, only because boiling the shells to the correct texture is key to not having a mushy mess.
I knew my boys would enjoy this dish. They both come back for seconds. Bo is my great food critic, he said the breast was dry, but breast isn’t his favorite anyway
My mom and a friend stopped past and they both loved it. Breast is my moms fav and she said the breast was moist. Needless to say my fiancée asked what in the world it was, but I was relieved when I saw him munching without any complaints
My daughter came out of her room and asked was it meat in them. That’s when I felt horrible, I realized that I could have made a nice vegetarian dish from this dish also. which I will make a mental note of