↑
  • Start Here
  • Recipe Index
  • Travel Index
  • Lifestyle
  • Disclosures
  • Contact
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Easy Peasy Meals

Easy Recipes, Slow Cooker Meals, Meal Planning & Meal Prep

  • About
  • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Disclosures
    • Privacy + Ad Policy
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
  • Nav Widget Area

  • Start Here
  • Recipe Index
  • Course
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert
  • Method
    • Air fryer
    • Instant Pot
    • Skillet
    • Sheet Pan
    • Slow Cooker
    • Grill / Smoker
  • Holiday
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
    • 4th of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • NYE
  • Protein
    • Chicken
    • Beef
    • Turkey
    • Pork
    • Fish
    • Vegetarian
  • Low-Carb
Home » Main Dish » Chicken and Cheese Manicotti
This post may contain affiliate links. See my Full Disclosure for further details.
Main Dish

Chicken and Cheese Manicotti

By Rachael | Updated on January 9, 2023

30.4Kshares
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly
Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe

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.

Cheese topped stuffed manicotti in a glass baking dish with a spatula

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.

Bertolli pasta sauce in a jar on a dish towel with greens next to it and stuffed manicotti behind it

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.

a dish of freshly baked stuffed chicken and cheese manicotti covered with pasta sauce and cheese with herbs for garnish

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.

A glass baking dish of stuffed manicotti with French bread and fresh tomatoes

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

Chicken and Cheese Manicotti: Creamy herbed ricotta and chicken stuffed manicotti topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano marinara, mozzarella cheese, and herbs!
No ratings yet
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Chicken and cheese manicotti, chicken and cheese manicotti recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 4
Calories: 753kcal
Author: Rachael

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

Calories: 753kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 53g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 1012mg | Potassium: 928mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1080IU | Vitamin C: 8.6mg | Calcium: 300mg | Iron: 4.2mg

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.

Tried this recipe?Mention @ezpzmealz or tag #ezpzmealz!
Want to use this recipe in a meal plan?Try PrePear, my FREE Meal Planning App that allows you to save your recipes, plan meals, shop for groceries, and cook simply in one place. Join Here!

Don’t forget to pin for later:

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.

30.4Kshares
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly

Related

Related categories:
Chicken Italian Main Dish Meal Prep Pastabertolli cheese chicken manicotti marinara meals pasta stuffed manicotti

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rahul @ samosastreet says

    January 12, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    love chicken manicotti… the creaminess is just heavenly!
    Reply
    • Rachael says

      January 13, 2016 at 1:50 pm

      Thank you. Appreciate it.
      Reply
  2. Kerri Fernandez says

    February 20, 2016 at 9:47 am

    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.
    Reply
    • Kelly says

      June 1, 2016 at 2:39 pm

      Cooked chicken.
      Reply
  3. B. MacDonald says

    May 30, 2016 at 2:25 pm

    Looks delicious! I was also wondering where that striped pitcher came from. love it!
    Reply
  4. Kelly Teeter says

    May 31, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    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.
    Reply
    • Rachael says

      June 1, 2016 at 10:12 pm

      Just chop everything really small with a knife, and stir it all together.
      Reply
      • Misty says

        September 10, 2018 at 11:38 am

        Can I substitute the cottage cheese with more ricotta or something else?
      • Rachael says

        September 11, 2018 at 7:19 am

        Yes for sure. My kids just love the cottage cheese. Ricotta is an excellent choice.
  5. April says

    June 3, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    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)?
    Reply
    • Syndee says

      June 14, 2016 at 8:33 pm

      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.
      Reply
  6. Marcy says

    October 19, 2017 at 4:49 pm

    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! ♥
    Reply
    • Rachael says

      October 21, 2017 at 9:03 am

      Marcy, that is a great idea! Thank you for sharing. I am so glad.
      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Rate this recipe: ☆☆☆☆☆

Primary Sidebar

Rachael from Eazy Peazy Mealz

Welcome, I'm Rachael!

I’m a mom of 4 great kids that keep me super busy.

My philosophy is cooking has to be easy, tasty, kid approved, and fit between homework, piano practice, soccer, and the MOUNTAINS of laundry in my life! Read More Work With Me
Take the Hassle Out of Meal Time!
FREE EMAIL COURSE + Printable Recipe Binder!
 
Easy, quick prep meals your family will want to eat sent straight to your inbox!
Thank you for subscribing!

Crock Pot Meals

Crock Pot Philly Cheesesteak (Keto)

Crockpot grape jelly meatballs are the perfect party appetizer.

Crockpot Grape Jelly Meatballs

A bowl full of bolognese made in the slow cooker.

Bolognese Slow Cooker

A bowl of chicken parmesan casserole

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan

20 Minute Meals

Pop hearts, homemade pop tarts, flakey pie crust stuffed with raspberry jam and baked to golden perfection.
A cuban sandwich
Pad see ew a thai stir fry noodle with vegetables, so delicious, so easy to make.
A hot stack of buttermilk pancakes and syrup being poured over the top

Free Kitchen Binder eBook

Let's Do This!

browse allRecipes By Method

slow cook

Sheet Pan

Air Fryer

Instant Pot

Grill/Smoke

One Pot

Skillet

Let's Work Together

Hi, I'm Rachael, and I am obsessed with sharing quality products and solid recipes. I can work with you to develop, test and create original recipes and content using YOUR products, and share it across Eazy Peazy Mealz blog and social channels, reaching thousands of dedicated readers.

Let's Do This

Footer

Eazy Peazy Meals
  • About
  • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright ©2023, Easy Peasy Meals. All Rights Reserved.
Design by Pixel Me Designs
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Yummly