Mushroom and Chicken Stuffed Pasta
October 7th, 2017 in Chicken, Main Dishes, Pasta by Julia Volhina
Total cooking time: 1h 45min
It took me awhile to get back to stuffing some pasta shells after first attempt. So second recipe is featuring mushroom, chicken and cheese stuffing with cheese sauce on top.
A little bit heavy (pasta, cream, cheese), but also totally delicious I must say.
Not to hard to do, however will take some time to cook. And since leftovers can be easily reheated, can be great for lunch next day or two.
Pasta shells have tendency to break when cooked, so I usually boil few extra to make sure I have enough.
Ingredients:
- 25-30 jumbo pasta shells
- 1.5lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1lb bella mushrooms
- 1 onion
- 7oz of shredded 3 cheese blend (Fontina Cheese, Asiago and Parmesan)
- Small bunch of fresh dill
- 1 egg
- 1.5 cups of heavy cream
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
How to prepare, step-by-step:
- Prepare ingredients:
- Warm a deep skillet up with a tablespoon of oil, peel and chop onion and fry it over moderate heat until colored, stir from time to time:
- While onions are cooking, clean and chop mushrooms, then when onions are ready, add mushrooms to the skillet:
- Fry onions and mushrooms together, until liquid produced by mushrooms evaporates, continue stirring:
- Then add chopped chicken meat (I use knife to dice it thin, but I suppose chopping it in food processor would work as well):
- Cook everything for about 15 mins, stir from time to time, then season with salt and pepper to taste:
- Cook for 1-2 mins more, then scoop chicken-mushroom-onions mix into a bowl (preserve juices for sauce):
- Bring a pot with water to boil, salt to taste and cook pasta shells until al-dente (follow package instructions if needed, remove the water when ready, rinse and set aside to cool down):
- While pasta is cooking, let’s do the sauce. For that warm up a saucepan over moderate low heat, add about tablespoon of butter and chopped garlic:
- Fry for about 2 minutes (until fragrant), then pour cream in:
- Add juices remained from cooking chicken and mushrooms:
- Season with salt and pepper to taste:
- And about half of the cheese blend:
- Cook until cheese melted, stirring from time to time, then turn the heat off, sauce is ready:
- Now let’s finish up preparing stuffing, chicken and mushroom mix should have cooled down a bit by now. Add remainder of cheese blend to it:
- Add chopped dill:
- Crack an egg in:
- Mix everything:
- Warm up the oven to 350F. Using a spoon stuff each pasta shell with stuffing:
- Pour a bit of sauce at the bottom of the baking pan, then arrange all shells in the pan:
- And pour a bit of cheese sauce into each:
- Cover pan with foil and put to the oven for 30 mins, then remove foil and cook for 15 more, then remove from the oven:
- Serve stuffed pasta shells with sauce on top: