Cheesy Chicken & Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells

Cheesy chicken and spinach stuffed shells are easy to make, and your family is sure to love them! They are also a great make-ahead meal and freeze well. Double it up, share one, freeze one! This recipe is a winner-winner chicken dinner.

Why I love this recipe so much

Cheesy Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells is an easy meal for busy after-school evenings; assemble it up to 2 days in advance, or you can make it and pop it in your freezer further down the road.  Better yet, if your family is smaller than mine, this recipe can be split into two four-serving meals: make one, freeze one!  Voila! I also love that this meal seems fancy because, stuffed shells. Duh! But it is super easy to make, and if you have little ones and you don’t mind them getting their fingers in food (Any little grimy finger germs will get annihilated when you bake it.), this is a fun recipe to let them help you with. They can scoop in the filling while you hold the shell. Or you can do it and let them set the filled shells in the the baking dish, counting the shells as they go. You get the idea! You can never start your kid’s cooking too early. I have been trying to eat more protein, the lean chicken paired with the protein rich ricotta gives you 18 grams of protein per serving.

Gather these ingredients

How to assemble cheesy chicken and spinach stuffed shells

Get a large pot of water boiling. Add plenty of salt. Cook pasta shells al dente. The pasta should be firm to the bite. This will make it easier to fill the shells, and they will continue to cook while baking. (See below for my trick for cooking larger noodles.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Chop spinach, and then measure it. You should have two cups of chopped spinach.

Using the paddle attachment, cook the chicken breasts and shred the meat with a fork or stand mixer. After the chicken is shredded, add ricotta cheese, Italian seasoning, milk, salt, and pepper. Mix well. 

Add chopped spinach and fold in with a spatula. Taste and see if you think it needs more salt and pepper. 

Add enough red sauce to the bottom of the baking dish to cover the bottom. 

Using a small scoop or spoon fill each pasta shell with the chicken mixture. I have also put the chicken and ricotta mixture in a zip-loc bag, snipped a corner of the bag off with scissors and piped approximately three tablespoons ricotta mixture into the shells. 

It is OK if the shells are a bit over stuffed.

Line up stuffed shells in the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish lined with pasta sauce. Since you will not be able to fit a whole box of shells in this size dish, you will have a few shells left over. Spoon the remaining red sauce over the stuffed shells. 

Sprinkle shredded cheese over top of the pasta and place the baking dish in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. 

Tips & Variations

• Chicken: I often use shredded rotisserie chicken for this recipe or leftover baked chicken breasts. If I’m baking skinless chicken breasts, I will bake extra and use the leftover chicken to make this for another night of the week. You can also boil the chicken breasts, cool them, and shred them. 
• Cheese: This is a very cheesy dish. If you want to cut down on the cheese, skip putting the shredded cheese in the chicken mixture and sprinkle the top with Parmesan instead of mozzarella. I have had to be more mindful of my dairy intake in my old age, so sometimes, I will make it this way for our family. 
• Cooking pasta: I have found that cooking the large pasta shells in a shallow pan spreads out and doesn’t clump on top of each other. Undercook the pasta. Pasta should be firm to the bite. A firmer noodle will make it easier to fill the shells, and they will continue to cook while baking. 
• Freezing: If you have a family of four or less, the full recipe will make two smaller pans. Make one and freeze one, or better yet, give one away! If you decide to freeze, wrap a freezer-safe pan tightly in plastic wrap. Make sure that the pasta is completely cooled before placing it in your refrigerator or freezer. 
• Protein: If you are trying to get more protein in your diet, you can swap the ricotta cheese out for cottage cheese. It tastes great, and no one will notice the difference. 
• Variation 1: Cheesy Pesto Chicken and Spinach—If you love to add pesto to everything like I do, this is the perfect recipe for it! Add pesto to the pasta sauce, add pesto to the spinach filling, or both. My motto is you can never add too much pesto. Here is my recipe for roasted garlic pesto. 
• Variation 2: Skip the chicken and use spaghetti sauce with beef. Make the filling without the shredded chicken; the shells will not be as full. Fill them and tuck them together in your baking pan. You will be able to use all the noodles when doing it this way. Spoon in pasta sauce, layer with cheese-stuffed noodles, put the remaining pasta sauce on top, sprinkle with cheese, and bake. Four cups of pasta sauce with meat will be needed for this version. 
• Variation 3: Meatless. Clean and slice 2 pounds of mushrooms, whatever type you like. Saute them in olive oil. Make sure they have cooked down enough so there is no longer any liquid in the pan. Allow mushrooms to cool. Add mushrooms to a large bowl with ricotta, Italian seasoning, milk, shredded cheese, and spinach; mix well. Continue with the recipe as written above. 

Menu ideas:

Cheesy Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Pasta shells with a crispy green salad and garlic bread! Done! What could be better? This is the perfect meal to give to someone in need of a little love.

Thanks for being here! Please be sure to rate this recipe below in the recipe card. Print it, share it, share on social media, PIN it! Enjoy, Sheila

Cheesy Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells

Sheila

This good for you back to school meal makes one large pan of stuffed shells or two smaller pans. Pop one in the freezer for later or share the extra meal with someone you love!

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course dinner

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 8 servings

Calories 339 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 12 ounce box jumbo pasta shells
• 2 whole chicken breasts shredded / approximately 3 cups of shredded chicken
• 15 ounces container ricotta cheese
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasonings
• 8 ounces Italian Blend Shredded Cheese reserve 1/2 cup cheese for garnish
• 2 cups chopped spinach chopped
• 2 tbsp milk
• 24 ounce jar marinara sauce

Instructions

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• Fill a 12 inch skillet with water and couple tablespoons of salt. Bring to a boil. Place pasta shells in boiling water and let cook for 5 minutes. Drain water from shells and set aside. (Pasta should be slightly under done.)
• Place cooled chicken breasts in a bowl of stand mixer, give it a few pulses to get chicken shredded. You can also shred with forks or in a food processor.
• Spoon marinara sauce into the bottom of baking dish, just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan.
• Add ricotta, Italian spice blend, 1 cup Italian cheese blend or shredded mozzarella, and milk to shredded chicken and give a few more pulses until ingredients are incorporated. Fold in chopped spinach, once you have spinach incorporated into the filling, place chicken ricotta filling in a zip-loc bag, and snip one of the corners, pipe filling into each shell. Or you can also spoon mixture into each shell.
• When all shells are filled spoon the remaining marinara sauce over the shells, and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
• Make ahead meal: This meal can be made up to two days in advance, cover with aluminum foil and store in refrigerator until ready to bake.
• Freezer directions: If you are making this meal to freeze you will want to put in a freezer safe baking dish/ pan cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil. Remove from freezer, thaw, remove plastic wrap and cover with aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350 degree oven cook for 30 minutes with foil on, remove foil and cook for another 10 minutes.

Notes

Note: if you don’t have a food processor use two forks to pull the chicken apart into small shredded pieces.

Nutrition

Serving: 5shellsCalories: 339kcalCarbohydrates: 42gProtein: 18gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.01gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 51mgSodium: 533mgPotassium: 553mgFiber: 4gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 11IUVitamin C: 0.02mgCalcium: 379mgIron: 1mg

Keyword chicken, marinara sauce, mozzarella, pasta, ricotta, spinach, stuffed shells

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Disclaimer: Many thanks to ADA Mideast for sponsoring my healthy back to school meals post.  With amazing sponsors like the ADA Mideast I am able to keep my blog up and running.  As always all thoughts, ideas, and recipes are my own!