White Cheese and Chicken Lasagna

I found this from Pinterest…thought it looked and sounded yummy….and I have to say it did not disappoint. The original recipe is from hiddenponies.com  I made a few changes and I also made it in a 9x9 pan mostly because a 9x13 pan of anything is too much for my family.   I did use my new trick I learned just recently from my Mom about cooking the noodles in the microwave….love it.  Works so nice!  This recipe makes a nice white sauce that would be a nice base for any type of cheese sauce (add cheddar etc to make homemade mac n cheese). One last thing is that I put another layer or cottage cheese…so basically layer it however you like.  I always lose track whenever I try to layer in a lasagna and in the end it really doesn’t matter!   Enjoy!

9 lasagna noodles

½ cup butter

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

2 cups chicken broth

1 ½ cups milk

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese,divided

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken  ( I used a rotisserie chicken)

10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

2 cups cottage cheese

1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in flour and salt, simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan. Season with basil, oregano and ground black pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture on the bottom of the 9×13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken and layer with ¼ of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and ½ cup parm cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven