White Chicken Lasagna

Growing up, my mom would make lasagna with red sauce and ground beef.  It was always a favorite dish, and my older brother would always ask for it for his birthday dinner when we were kids.

She always made it with cottage cheese instead of ricotta.  I actually didn't know that lasagna was typically made using ricotta cheese until I was well into my twenties.

So I decided to go old-school and make this lasagna with cottage cheese, but since the hubs doesn't like the texture of cottage cheese, I made sure to blend it thoroughly and mix it with the chicken for the meat layer.  I would ordinarily add a layer of fresh spinach in there too, but the hubs doesn't like spinach either...and it is hard to get around that one, I highly recommend it though!

White Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

9 cooked lasagna noodles
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. dry minced onion
1 tsp garlic
1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
2 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. milk
2 tsp basil (divided)
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp garlic powder (divided)
1/4 tsp pepper
4 c. mozzarella cheese (divided)
1 c. Parmesan cheese
2 c. cooked chicken, diced
1 c. cottage cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium pot, melt the butter.  Add the onion and garlic ans saute until the onions are translucent.  Whisk in the flour and salt and cook an additional minute.  Pour in the chicken broth and milk and cook until the mixture thickens.  Stir 1 teaspoon each of the basil, oregano, and garlic powder, along with the pepper.  Whisk in 2 cups of the mozzarella, and the Parmesan and stir until smooth and the cheese is melted.  Remove from heat.

In a blender, blend the cottage cheese (or leave it as is, if desired).  Stir the diced chicken and cottage cheese together and mix in the remaining teaspoon of basil and garlic powder.

In a 13x9 pan, spread about a third of the cheese sauce thoroughly over the bottom.  Lay 3 of the lasagna noodles over the sauce.  Spread half the chicken mixture over the noodles, then spread the next third of the cheese sauce over the chicken.  Lay 3 more noodles down, top those with the remaining half of the chicken mixture, then half the remaining cheese sauce over the chicken.  Lay the last 3 noodles down, top with the remaining sauce, and the last 2 cups of mozzarella.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Enjoy!