Chicken and Cheese Manicotti:
Creamy herbed ricotta and shredded chicken stuffed manicotti topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and fresh herbs! This is a great weeknight meal.
This Chicken and Cheese stuffed manicotti recipe is easy and delicious. It’s a complete meal in a single pan. No one will be complaining about these Chicken and Cheese Manicotti.
Serve with Garlic Bread Twists for the ultimate meal.
Chicken and Cheese stuffed Manicotti Recipe
It has been a few years since I have regularly consumed pasta. My husband used to work at an Italian restaurant, as a manager, so we ate a lot of pasta. So much so that when he stopped working there he never wanted pasta again. I grew up in a pasta eating, Italy loving, family, and so I would only make pasta if he wasn’t home to eat with us.
Another Italian favorite, that’s actually low carb, is my chicken marsala.
Well it has finally been enough years that he is liking pasta again, and I am loving being able to have fun in the kitchen and make lots of delicious pasta options. This stuffed chicken and cheese manicotti is easy to make, and absolutely tasty.
Saving time without compromising flavor
I love using bottled pasta sauces because I just don’t have the time to simmer the sauce long enough to get those amazing layers of flavor, which means buying a pasta sauce, especially one like this that is a specialty sauce, means I get all the yummy flavor with a fraction of the work.
All I do is dump the sauce over my stuffed manicotti and bake! Yum!
Anyway, the filling in this manicotti is ricotta cheese, chicken, cottage cheese, and some spices to make it taste good! It is really easy; I just pulse it all in my food processor to get it well incorporated. This makes it easier to pipe into the manicotti noodles.
Meal Prep, Freezer Meals
Now, I have made this particular recipe several times. One of the reasons I love making it is that it keeps well in the fridge or freezer and can be made ahead of time. For example, once when I traveled out of town for work, my father-in-law came to my house to watch my children. I knew he would have his hands full running them to and from their various activities, so I made this before I left and had it in the fridge.
I frequently employ this technique, and freeze meals so that on those hectic, chaotic nights I have something my family can enjoy without hitting up a drive through. Plus, I love garlic bread, so anything I can serve with garlic bread makes me one happy mama!
This Chicken and Cheese Manicotti recipe is super easy to customize. I find in the summer I love to add zucchini to the filling, or yellow squash. Sometimes I will shred carrots and add those as well. It is great for hidden veggies since everything is food processed to be pretty small.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Italian Secrets for Cooking Pasta
- After bringing the water to a boil, flavor water with salt. This will infuse more flavor into the noodles.
- Italians cook a lot of pasta, and don’t generally rinse their noodles. Rather, they cook and strain them; then, immediately add sauce and other add-ins. Again, this enables more flavor, as well as preserves more nutrient value.
- One of our favorite pasta tools is a pot with a lid and locking handles. So easy to strain water out, then pull off the lid, and then add the rest!
- We also love our sturdy and beautiful Italian Olive Wood Spoon. So easy to move and mix the pasta!
- Finally, pasta truly does taste better when it is served from beautiful white porcelain serving bowls. Presentation is everything! Well, and a good recipe!
Other Favorite Italian Recipes
- Soul of Sicily Cooking School
- Ricotta Gnocchi Skillet
- How to Make Traditional Lasagna
- Portobello Pizza
- Asparagus Ravioli Pasta Salad
- Raspberry Italian Soda
- Italian Garden Salad
Chicken and Cheese Manicotti
Ingredients
- 10 Manicotti noodles cooked according to package directions
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 2 cups Bertolli Parmegiano-Reggiano Marinara
- 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
- fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package directions.
- While noodles are cooking, combine ricotta, cottage cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, thyme, and chicken in a food processor, and process until fully mixed. The chicken will be very small and mixed with the cheese, making a filling mixture.
- Spoon the cheese and chicken mixture into a large zipable plastic bag
- Remove noodles from hot water, and snip one tip off the corner of the plastic bag,making a hole that is half an inch or so in diameter. Use it to pipe the filling into your noodles.
- Place filled noodles in an 11 x 7 glass baking dish, cover with Bertolli marinara, top with cheese
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy.
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Rahul @ samosastreet says
love chicken manicotti… the creaminess is just heavenly!
Rachael says
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Kerri Fernandez says
I have just seen and printed out this recipe, “Chicken and Cheese Manicotti”. One question, the chicken cooked before you shred it, or raw????. Please let know.
Kelly says
Cooked chicken.
B. MacDonald says
Looks delicious!
I was also wondering where that striped pitcher came from. love it!
Kelly Teeter says
What if you don’t have a food processor? This sounds really yummy and want to make it but I don’t have a processor.
Rachael says
Just chop everything really small with a knife, and stir it all together.
Misty says
Can I substitute the cottage cheese with more ricotta or something else?
Rachael says
Yes for sure. My kids just love the cottage cheese. Ricotta is an excellent choice.
April says
You said you like to make ahead and freeze. Do you freeze before or after baking? How do you reheat it? Thaw first or cook from frozen? Could you bake first, then divide it into lunch sized portions that could be reheated in the microwave (after thawing first of course)?
Syndee says
Freeze before baking. You can cook from frozen, it’ll just take longer–probably an hour.
Or, bake it and eat for a meal, then pack remaining into lunch portions to freeze and enjoy later. I would thaw those in fridge overnight then take to work a d microwave.
Marcy says
Just as a note … I makethe filling and fill the al dente shells and freeze them individually since there several weeknights when I eat alone. Makes it easy to pop some in the oven with some sauce for 40 minutes (covered with foil) and top with extra cheese and broil … and make some yummy garlic bread … to … die … for …
Thanks for the great recipe!
♥
Rachael says
Marcy, that is a great idea! Thank you for sharing. I am so glad.