This Skillet White Chicken Lasagna is for the true cheese lovers out there. Loaded with mushrooms, spinach, chunks of chicken, this lasagna is creamy, super cheesy and absolutely delicious.
I love a good white lasagna, there’s just something so fun about taking a classic and turning it on its head. I like to pack this recipe full of melty cheese and round it out with a little bit of heat courtesy of red pepper flakes. Is your mouth watering yet?
What Is White Lasagna?
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the more traditional style of lasagna, one with rich hearty red sauce and lots of beef. White lasagna however is an equally stick to your ribs dish that uses a butter and cream based white sauce and perfectly tender chicken instead. We’re still layering on that delicious ricotta on perfectly al dente mafalda pasta.
What Is Mafalda Pasta?
If you’re unfamiliar with this style of pasta, I don’t blame you – I mean it’s not exactly common. This style almost looks like shrunken down lasagna sheets which means they’ll be totally twirlable when incorporated into your dish. I promise you’ll be able to find them at your local grocery store but if not any small shaped pasta will work just fine.
Ingredients
Keep scrolling down to the recipe card for a list of FULL ingredient amounts and instructions or click the “Jump to Recipe” button at the top of the page!
- Butter – Unsalted as we want to control the sodium content of our dish.
- Onion – Chopped up, be sure to look for something that cooks down well like white or yellow onion.
- Garlic – Use as much or little as you like.
- Mushrooms – Cleaned and chopped, cremini or button will work perfectly for this dish.
- Spices – Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes.
- Flour – The thickening agent of our white sauce.
- Broth – Low sodium chicken broth as we want to control our salt.
- Milk – Any fat percentage you’d like.
- Pasta – I used mafalda pasta today.
- Cheese – We’re loading up this dish with ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Believe me you’ll want all three!
- Spinach – Fresh spinach is what I used today, feel free to use frozen if you’d like but be sure to drain it before incorporating.
- Chicken – Breasts cooked and shredded. Feel free to use skinless boneless thigh if you’d prefer.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper.
- Parsley – Fresh and chopped up fine to be sprinkled on top as garnish.
How To Make Skillet White Chicken Lasagna
- Saute the sauteables: In a large skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for a couple minutes until the onion softens.
- Cook the mushrooms: Stir in the mushrooms and season with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushroom cook down a bit and start to brown.
- Form the sauce: Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms and stir before stirring in the chicken broth and milk. Add the mafalda pasta, stir and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. There should be enough liquid but if you find that the pasta is not cooked enough and all the liquid is gone, add a bit more chicken broth.
- Incorporate the rest of the veggies: Stir in the ricotta and Parmesan cheese, then add the spinach and stir. Cook for another minute until the spinach cooks down.
- Finish the dish: Stir in the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Place the skillet under the broiler for a couple minutes to melt the cheese. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
Other Additions
Consider this recipe a nice blank canvas for whatever you’d like to use up in your fridge. I promise the flavors are so divine that any thing you can think to add will only make the dish even more stellar!
| Veggies | Pasta | Meats |
|---|---|---|
| Zucchini | Lasagna sheets | Turkey |
| Peas | Bowties | Sausage |
| Green beans | Rigatoni | Ground beef |
| Eggplant | Penne | Ground pork |
| Cherry tomatoes | Rotini |
Leftovers
Properly cool the lasagna before storing it, so that it will freeze and store evenly. It will stay fresh for 3 – 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Frozen lasagna will last for 2 – 3 months, just be sure to allow to thaw fully in the fridge before re heating.
More Delicious Lasagna Recipes To Try:
- Chicken Lasagna alla Bolognese
- Zucchini Lasagna
- Taco Lasagna
- One Pot Hamburger Helper Lasagna
- Lasagna Soup
- Skillet Lasagna
- Lasagna Roll-ups
- Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
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Skillet White Chicken Lasagna
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter unsalted
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 5 oz mushrooms cleaned and chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth low sodium
- 2 cups milk
- 8 oz mafalda pasta
- 8 oz ricotta cheese
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 4 oz fresh spinach
- 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
- 10 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- In a large skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for a couple minutes until the onion softens.
- Stir in the mushrooms and season with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushroom cook down a bit and start to brown.
- Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms and stir. Stir in the chicken broth and milk. Add the mafalda pasta, stir and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. There should be enough liquid but if you find that the pasta is not cooked enough and all the liquid is gone, add a bit more chicken broth.
- Stir in the ricotta and Parmesan cheese, then add the spinach and stir. Cook for another minute until the spinach cooks down.
- Stir in the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Place the skillet under the broiler for a couple minutes to melt the cheese.
- Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
Recipe Notes
- If you don’t like mushrooms, zucchini would make a great substitute.
- Mafalda pasta resemble mini, bite-sized lasagna sheets. If you can’t find those, any small pasta shape such as penne, rotini, bowties, rigatoni, etc. would work well.
- If you want to use lasagna sheets, this will make enough filling to do a small lasagna. First add a layer sauce on the bottom, then layer noodles, sauce, cheese, repeat.
- If the pasta isn’t cooked enough to your liking, add more chicken broth until the consistency is perfect.
- Properly cool the lasagna before storing it, so that it will freeze and store evenly. It will stay fresh for 3 – 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Frozen lasagna will last for 2 – 3 months, just be sure to allow to thaw fully in the fridge before re heating.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
I made this tonight with gluten free lasagna noodles (brown rice) and gluten free flour because I’m gluten intolerant. I used thawed and drained spinach. So even though I did this in an unconventional way, I was pleased with the results. I didn’t par boil the pasta. I just broke it up and cooked them in the chicken broth and milk. I think I would have used some grated nutmeg to pop the flavor of the spinach. Over all it was quite yummy 😋
YIKES! I need help and/or suggestions on how to cook the chicken. I want to make this so much but I don’t know how I should prepare the chicken. Help!
Any way you usually cook chicken will work! In the oven at 425F for 20-25 minutes, in a pressure cooker for 4 minutes, or you can simply cook them in a skillet for 5-6 minutes per side over medium-hight heat.