Spinach and Alfredo Chicken Casserole

What I love about this recipe is that it’s great as a casserole, but you can make it at night for dinner as well.  It’s one of those batch cooking meets the freezer.  The next time I make it, I’m going to create it – eat it – and then the leftovers will go right into the freezer.  Now I will say that when you’re freezer cooking with pasta, it tends to soak up a lot of the sauce.  I noticed that the sauce was much more present the night I served it than in the casserole.  It really didn’t bother me much, but if you’re more of  a saucy person, you might want to up the alfredo before you put it in the freezer.

To make this spinach and alfredo chicken casserole you will need:

6 cooked chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 bottles alfredo sauce
4 TB pesto
2 TB olive oil
4 tsp minced garlic
2 Bags fresh spinach
2 lbs penne pasta

breadcrumbs & parmesan/romano cheese (optional)

Now for this recipe to be packed with chicken, you’ll need six chicken breasts.  As you can see from the picture, I had about half that amount.  I decided to get the all natural chicken which is really twice the price.  Therefore, I bought half the amount of chicken.  To make it spread I usually chop it very small.

Bring a big pot of water to boil and cook the pasta per the instructions.

While the noodles are boiling,  cook the chicken in the olive oil.  It takes about 6 to 8  minutes per side depending on how thick your chicken is.  Once it’s cooked through, remove it from the pan and chop it up into bite size pieces.  In the hot pan add your garlic and saute for one minute only.  Add one bag of spinach and saute until it withers completely.  Remove it form the pan and add it to the chicken.  Place the second bag of spinach into the pan and let it wither as well.

Once the pasta is drained, return it to the large pot and add the wilted spinach, chicken and garlic.

Add the two cans of alfredo sauce as well as the pesto.  Give it a good stir and add it to two 9×13 pans to add to the freezer.  If you’re enjoying it that night, you can add it to a casserole dish and bake at 350 for 3o minutes.

I ended up lightly dusting the top of the casserole with bread crumbs as well as parmesan romano cheese.  Yum! I like a little bit of crunch!

Enjoy!