Chicken, Garlic and Spinach Lasagna, layers of tender chicken, spinach and pasta sheets with a creamy cheesy sauce, baked until golden. Easy recipe and freezer friendly.

The smells coming from the oven when this is cooking is simply wonderful!
Here I made a simple lasagne, full of flavour and oh so delicious!
I made it as simple as possible, and also used Spinach lasagne pasta sheets for a nice colour.

The sauce we've used is our basic cheese sauce recipe, which for those of you who have already tried the recipe will know it's super easy and you will get great results every time with no lumps. A traditional lasagna recipe uses a tomato-based sauce to cook the meat as well as a cream sauce for the layers.

We haven't used a tomato sauce, but simply cooked the chicken in garlic and spinach will give heaps of flavor. Adding a tomato sauce will overpower the flavors as chicken has a more delicate flavor than when using beef in traditional lasagne.

The filling is made up of chicken and spinach, for the chicken, we've used chicken thighs, simply because the flavor is nicer, sweeter and the meat is not going to dry out as it can often do when using breast meat. The spinach is frozen, and of course, you can use fresh spinach too. We always keep a supply of frozen spinach for easy dinners, so it's always to hand.

It is a very filling dish, so beware! What looks like a small portion on your plate is certainly going to fill your tummy!
Please enjoy!

You will need an ovenproof dish, measuring approx 8 x 10 inches and deep enough to about 4 inches. Try and use a pan as close to this size as possible so you can get the layers nice.

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

2 chicken legs or 4 thighs boned and cut into small bite-size
*** You can use breast meat but I find the dark meat sweeter and has more flavor.
1 package of frozen spinach
1 medium onion chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 1/4 cups or 250 ml chicken broth
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce (or Balsamic Vinegar)
Salt & Pepper
** I also used a handful of sliced mushrooms for added texture.

Cheese Sauce

3 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup or 40 g All-Purpose Flour
2 1/2 cups or 600 ml Milk
1 teaspoon Yellow Mustard powder
1 1/2 cups or 150 g grated cheese
Choose your favourite cheese. I used Cheddar.
Salt & Pepper
Lasagne sheets - for 3 layers.
I used Spinach lasagne sheets

Instructions

Make the meat filling

1. Peel & chop onion, garlic (and mushrooms if using) then add to a pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
2. Lightly fry until the onions are soft and translucent (not brown as this will make them taste bitter)
3. Add your chicken and cook, stirring in the pan with the other ingredients. Your chicken should be cut into bite-sized pieces.

Add the broth, spinach and Worcestershire Sauce and leave to simmer very low whilst you make the cheese sauce. Season if you wish with salt & pepper

Make the Cheese Sauce

1. Melt butter in the pan under gentle heat
2. Add Flour & mustard powder and beat until a smooth paste and take the pan off the heat.
3. Slowly add the milk, a little at a time and combine until smooth, then add a little more milk, combine. Continue until all the milk is used.
4. Return to gentle heat, and keep stirring until thick This will take about 5 minutes so be patient and keep stirring!.
5. Add 3/4 of the grated cheese and combine. The remaining 1/4 of the cheese is for the top of the lasagne.

Build the lasagne.

1. Preheat oven to 170 C / 325 F / Gas 3
2. Start with a layer of 1/3 of the meat sauce on the bottom of the pan, then a layer of lasagne sheets,

then cheese sauce. Repeat these layers, ending with the cheese sauce as the final top layer. Then sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top.
*** you should be able to make 3 layers of lasagne sheets.

3. Place in the oven for 1 hour. **** I would advise to place the lasagne on a baking tray to catch any drips. When done, remove and leave to set for 30 minutes.

****IMPORTANT ****

If you try and cut the lasagne when it is piping hot it is too slushy. Allow to firm up a little, with the 30 minutes rest, then you can make nice portions and get the lasagne from the pan using a fish slice.

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

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