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Pasta shells stuffed with chicken, spinach and cheese topped with marinara on a white plate with a side salad

Cheesy Chicken & 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 40 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course dinner
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 12 ounce box Jumbo Shells pasta
  • 2 Chicken Breasts boiled and shredded
  • 15 ounces container Ricotta Cheese
  • 1 tblsp Italian Seasonings
  • 8 ounces Italian Blend Shredded Cheese reserve 1/2 cup cheese for garnish
  • 2 cups fresh Spinach chopped
  • 2 tablespoons Milk
  • 24 ounce jar Marinara Sauce

Instructions
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  • Fill a 12 skillet with water and a dash of salt and bring to a boil. Place pasta shells in boiling water and let cook for 5 minutes. Drain water from shells and set aside. (you want pasta to be slightly under done)
  • Place boiled and cooled chicken breasts in a food processor, give it a few pulses to get chicken chopped into fine pieces. See notes if you don't have a food processor.
  • Add ricotta, Italian spice blend, Italian cheese blend, and milk to shredded chicken and give a few more pulses until ingredients are incorporated. Remove mixture to a bowl and 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.
  • Filling the shells: place a pasta shell in palm of hand squeeze cheesy chicken filling into each shell being careful not to over fill then place filled shell slit side up in a baking dish. When all shells are filled spoon marinara sauce over the shells, and sprinkle with reserved 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, 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 dish/ pan cover tightly with foil. Remove from freezer, thaw 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.
Keyword blue cheese, chicken, marinara sauce, pasta, spinach
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