Chicken Alfredo Manicotti

Votes: 2

Time: 1 hour 30 min.
Complexity: easily
Servings: 6

These wide Italian manicotti pasta tubes are filled with a juicy filling of ricotta, chicken, and spinach and baked in a creamy Alfredo sauce topped with grated cheese. The filling is made with grilled chicken, and there's no need to boil the manicotti tubes before filling them: they'll cook through while baking in the sauce. This significantly reduces cooking time. The highlight of this casserole is the crispy bacon bits that cover the manicotti, along with the melting cheese on top. Hearty homemade pasta at its best!

The recipes use measuring containers with the following volumes:
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Ingredients for the recipe:

Alfredo sauce

6 thick strips bacon, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 leek (about 280 g), white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
2.5 cups low-fat cream (10%)
0.5 tbsp. freshly grated parmesan
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Juice of half a lemon
110 g of cream cheese, room temperature
0.5 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped, plus extra for serving

Filling

1 package (280g) frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out of water
2.5 cups ricotta (about 450 g)
1 tbsp. gil chickens, diced
3/4 cup of grated Italian cheese mix (Parmesan, provolone, mozzarella)
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Juice of half a lemon
Special equipment: a large disposable pastry bag or zip-lock bag

Paste

1 package (220 g) manicotti
0.5 cups of grated Italian cheese mix

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

We recommend

Cooking the dish according to the recipe:

Preheat oven to 175°C.
Alfredo sauce:

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until crisp, 7-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.

Add the garlic and leek to the skillet with the remaining rendered fat and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the cream, Parmesan, red pepper, and lemon juice and bring to a simmer. Add the cream cheese and cook until the sauce thickens and the cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the parsley, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Filling:

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, ricotta, chicken, grated cheese, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. Transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag (or zip-lock bag) and snip off a small corner.
Paste:

Spoon 1 cup of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13-inch ovenproof (not glass) baking dish and spread it out. Pipe the filling into each end of the uncooked manicotti tubes to completely fill them, and arrange them in the baking dish. Top with the remaining sauce, fried bacon, and grated cheese. Cover with foil and bake until the sauce is bubbling and the pasta is cooked through, 30-40 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and remove the foil. Turn the oven to broil. Grill the surface of the casserole until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.