Maria Nasir‘Garfield’ (Jim Davis)
This Easy Chicken Lasagna Recipe is a welcome change from beef lasagna and it’s a lighter version which is usually preferred by kids.
Like Garfield,Lasagna is the ultimate comfort food for me too, but I make it for my three family members who have different preferences when it comes to eating lasagna, making my task difficult.
My husband doesn’t like plain Béchamel so I make a cheese version for him with lots of herbs added for flavour. My elder daughter doesn’t like the tomatoes overpowering the dish so more chicken and the younger one doesn’t like mozzarella, therefore cheddar takes its place. With repeated experiments, balancing the flavours and a few tweaks, I’ve come up with an easy chicken lasagna recipe.
I have to admit the outcome is delicious and makes everyone happy in my hous and this is the goal of all our efforts in the kitchen, cook happiness for our family,right!
Now making a lasagna can be quite a laborious task but it doesn’t have to be if you plan ahead. What I do to make the procedure easy is divide cooking different components on different days. Like if I have time I make ahead a batch of white sauce and keep in the fridge ready to use. Then maybe next day I cook and freeze the chicken mince. That way most of my work is done before I need to assemble and bake the lasagna.
Sometimes I even completely assemble, cover and freeze lasagna many days ahead of a big party. On the required day, I simply thaw it and bake as usual.
Ingredients:
For Chicken Lasagna:
1/2 kg minced chicken
1 large onion, chopped
8 ripe tomatoes, chopped, puréed
4cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
4 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil
For White Sauce:
5 tablespoons flour
1/2 litre milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup Parmesan or mozzarella
This Is What You Do:
Heat oil in a sauce pan, add onions and garlic, stir fry for a minute . Add chicken, salt, pepper and paprika, stir fry.
Add tomato purée, cover the pan and let simmer on medium heat till the chicken is cooked and liquids reduced. Add dried basil and oregano, stir and remove from heat. Add chopped parsley.
In a medium sauce pan prepare Béchamel sauce. Over medium -low heat melt butter, stir in flour.
Remove from heat, add milk slowly and mix vigorously .
Return to heat, add garlic powder, salt and white pepper.
Add half of the cheddar cheese. Stir till the sauce thickens and cheese melts. Remove from heat, add mustard and lemon juice.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a rectangular pan of 12x 6. Spread a layer of lasagna strips to cover the bottom of the pan.
Layer a generous helping of chicken and tomato mix. Top with cheese Béchamel sauce.
Repeat the layers. End with a layer of lasagne strips on top, spread white sauce and sprinkle remaining cheeses.
Bake for 30 minutes till the lasagna is golden and bubbly.
Thanks for making us so happy with ur wonderful recipes…we enjoy the cooking so much…we recommend cooking book will be more enjoyable
Thank u maria
Thank you so much, Aly! You are very kind! 😊 I’ve three cookbooks in e-book format on the blog. One of them is free to download. I’m working on a hardcover cookbook too, a bit slow, but hopefully it will be published next year.
Thank you again for your encouraging feedback! 😊
simple and super delicious recipe dear
Thanks a million dear Kushi 🙂 Our favourite indulgence for special occasions 🙂
It’s a real problem to reconcile everyone’s tastes!
Brava, Maria :))