Chicken Lasagna Roll-ups

Apparently I finally caught up on my sleep last night. Thank goodness because after sleeping 10 hours last night if I had to take another nap today I was going to have to make an appointment with the doctor.

Since I managed to stay awake during nap time I had dinner ready when Aaron walked in the door. We've had these lasagna roll-ups before, but the only recipe I've posted was for the Alfredo version. The recipe is so versatile though. I've made them with beef, vegetarian with spinach and cheese, and even with ground turkey.

I cooked the chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes with just salt and pepper. Then after about 15 minutes cooling on the counter I shredded it with my stand mixer. It takes about 2-3 minutes on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment and the meat ends up perfectly shredded for recipes like this. It also works well for chicken salad.

Tonight I used a store bought jar of sauce for convenience. It's really so much better with homemade marinara sauce but as I've said, I'm having a lazy week.

The other advantage to this recipe is that you can make it to feed 1 or to feed 20 with the same ease. The recipe as posted feeds 3-4. I'd say an average serving would be 2 roll-ups, but tonight Aaron and I each ate 3. We ate everything I cooked tonight which is a very rare indeed.

Chicken Lasagna Roll-ups

Source: adapted from Mmm...Cafe

9 lasagna noodles

2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded (about 2 chicken breasts)

3 cups mozzarella, shredded

2 1/2 cups marinara sauce (homemade or in a jar)

Italian seasoning (optional)

grated Parmesan (optional)

Cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 9x9 baking dish with vegetable oil spray. (I used a smaller rectangular pan tonight since I only made 6 roll-ups.)

Cover the bottom of the baking dish with about 1/2 cup of the sauce.

Lay a noodle out flat on the counter (I do this on a flex-mat cutting board) and spread about 1-2 oz of sauce on the noodle, leaving about 1/2 inch bare on each end.

Sprinkle an even layer of chicken and then cheese over the sauce.

Roll the noodle up, holding in the sides as you roll and keeping it as tight as possible and place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.

Continue with the remaining noodles until you are out of noodles and the pan is full.

Cover the roll-ups with about 1/2-3/4 cup of the remaining sauce (or more if you like it saucy).

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Sprinkle lightly with Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan if desired.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an addition 15 minutes. (Mine came out extra dark tonight because I turned the temperature up to cook some frozen garlic toast about 10 minutes before I removed the lasagna.)

Serve warm with garlic toast and salad on the side.