Chicken Lasagna
Though pasta is often prepared by many of us at home, lasagna is not such a common meal option. As a kid, I don’t remember ever seeing lasagna. And even if I had seen it, I doubt if I would have associated it to being a pasta. As an adult, when I was introduced to this dish, I really loved and that is how I tried making it at home. Like other pastas, here too we can prepare the sauce earlier and refrigerate. And whenever you need to make it, all you need to do is to boil some lasagna pasta sheets, layer it with the meat sauce and cheese and bake it.
This lasagna uses minced chicken as the base for the meat sauce. And preparation of the meat sauce is very similar to the red sauce we make for pasta. If you are really looking at a very quick way to make it, you can also use a readymade store bought red-sauce and cook it with the minced meat.
I have used a mix of mozarella and cottage cheese for the cheese layer. Cottage cheese is a great replacement for ricotta and is readily available in the Indian market too. When am in a hurry, I just use grated mozarella for the in-between cheese layer too, instead of using a mix. So that’s another way to make it easy and quick!
Chicken Lasagna
Course: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Moderate4
servings30
minutes30
minutes1
hourA chicken lasagna with a creamy sauce. Great for any kind of pot luck.
Ingredients
- For meat sauce
Olive Oil
Garlic – 5-6, finely chopped
Onion – 3 medium, finely chopped
Salt – 1 tsp (adjust as per taste)
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Tomato Puree – 400 gms
Red Chilli Powder – 1 tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Chicken Mince – 500 gms
Sugar – 1 tsp
Italian Seasoning – ½ tbsp
Chilli Flakes – ½ tbsp
Basil Leaves – 8-10, chopped
- For cheese mix
Mozarella Cheese – 100 gms, grated
Cottage or Ricotta Cheese – 100 gms, crumbled/grated
Garlic Powder – ½ tsp
Pepper Powder – ¼ tsp
Italian Seasoning – ¼ tsp
- Other Ingredients
Lasagna Sheets – 6, cooked to al dente
Mozarella Cheese – 100 gms, grated
Directions
- Preheat the oven at 180C.
- Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and keep it ready.
- In a kadai, add the olive oil.
- To this, add the garlic, onion and salt and cook till the onions are translucent.
- Next, add the tomatoes and tomato puree and cook for 8-10 min till the tomatoes are cooked through.
- Add the red chilli powder, pepper powder and chicken mince and mix well.
- Cook till the chicken is cooked through.
- Next, add the sugar, Italian seasoning, chilli flakes and basil leaves and let it all cook through together for a couple of minutes.
- Adjust for salt and other seasonings as needed.
- Turn off the heat and keep the meat sauce aside.
- In a bowl, mix together the mozzarella cheese, cottage/ricotta cheese, garlic powder, pepper powder and Italian seasoning and keep it aside.
- To assemble, add a layer of meat sauce first and then place two lasagna sheets on top of it.
- Add the meat sauce on top of the sheets, half of the cheese mix and then again top it with two more sheets of lasagna.
- Again, repeat one more layer of meat sauce, remaining cheese mix and 2 more sheets.
- Top it up with the balance meat sauce and the grated mozzarella cheese.
- Cover this lightly with an aluminum foil.
- Bake it at 20 min first and then for another 10 min after removing the aluminum foil on top to brown the top a little.
- Serve warm.
