Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake

I absolutely love this dish. At first I wasn't a huge fan, but now I can't wait to try it again!

Ingredients:

-8 oz uncooked rigatoni

-1 T olive oil

-1 c chopped onion (I only used half and it was plenty.)

-1(10 oz) pack frozen spinach, thawed (This is what the original recipe calls for, but I hate the smell/taste of frozen spinach so next time I make it I'm going to try fresh spinach.)

-3 c cubed, cooked chicken breasts

-(8 oz) container Philadelphia chive & onion cream cheese (I couldn't find one, so I bought one container of chive, and another of onion and mixed them together.)

½ t salt, ½ t pepper

1½ c shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Prepare rigatoni according to pkg directions. Spread oil on bottom of 11×17 in baking dish; add onion in a single layer. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to large bowl, set aside. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between paper towels. Stir in rigatoni, spinach, chicken, & cream cheese mixture into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into dish & sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake covered at 375 for 30 minutes; uncover & bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Spinach and Chick Tortilla Bake - Rachel Ray

Spinach and Chicken Tortilla Bake

Even though this is originally a Rachel Ray recipe (Which I will include below) I made a few changes.
I couldn't find any salsa verde in my grocery store, so I left it out. I also replaced the shredded pepper jack cheese with shredded marble cheese. I'm not a huge fan of spiciness so thats why I excluded some of the ingredients. The outcome was delicious, but make sure you use fresh spinach and not frozen, because it gets VERY soggy and disgusting... I learned the hard way.

ENJOY!

Recipe from Rachel Ray

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken cutlets (about 1 pound)
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups store-bought salsa verde
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
4 large (8″) flour tortillas
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3 cups baby spinach (about 1/4 pound)
2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add to the pan and cook, turning once, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Let cool, then shred the meat.

Whisk together the salsa verde and ricotta; season with salt and pepper. In a greased 9-inch square baking dish, layer one-third of the salsa mixture, tortillas, chicken, onion, spinach and pepper jack; repeat twice. Bake until golden-brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 4 servings