Chicken & Broccoli-Stuffed Shells

We love pasta at my house. For the most part we alternate between two recipes: spaghetti and fettuccine. And since that can be boring, I thought I’d surprise my family with a different kind of noodle. (It’s the small things in life, right?)

I decided to put a Tastefully Simple twist on chicken and broccoli-stuffed shells. It’s the perfect combination for my family – Alfredo sauce, chicken and broccoli. For some reason my kids love broccoli. I’m not sure how this happened, but I don’t ask a lot of questions because I want to keep it that way.

So let’s start with the chicken. I chose to use a purchased rotisserie chicken for simplicity. One rotisserie chicken should give you about four cups of meat in the end. And if you’ve never actually cut up a chicken, no worries: I haven’t either! I actually gave my husband this task while I was busy doing other things. However, I know for a fact it’s pretty simple. We even filmed a how-to video of this exact task, so keep an eye out on the blog next week to learn more!

What I love most about using a rotisserie chicken for this recipe is that you only need 2 cups of shredded chicken.  That means you have 2 cups left over to use in another meal. And trust me, I need as much help with meal planning as I can get! Check out the tips below to see what we did with our leftovers.

Once you have your chicken ready to go, it’s time to make some pasta.

First, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the shells according to the package directions. I prepared the entire box of shells, even though I only used 30 shells total in my dish. I did this because some of the shells will end up falling apart or tearing during the cooking process, making them harder to fill. I put the extra cooked shells in the fridge to use later when I need a quick lunch or dinner.

As the water was boiling, I started on my pasta filling. I put 2 cups of the chicken, one cup finely chopped broccoli and 1¾ cups of cottage cheese in a large bowl.

Once I had that mixed together, I set it aside and started on my Alfredo sauce. My family doesn’t like jarred Alfredo sauce at all, so we always make our own.

It’s simply 1 cup heavy whipping cream, ½ cup butter, 1 tablespoon Garlic Garlic™ Seasoning and 1 cup Parmesan cheese.

And seriously, I know what you’re thinking when you see that much cream and butter! It’s definitely yummy, but it’s also a very rich sauce. I like to tell myself that at least it has to be better for us than anything that comes in a jar and has a shelf life of who knows how long. Plus, it’s not like you are soaking the noodles in the sauce, so I feel okay about it.

Anyway, heat the cream, butter and Garlic Garlic Seasoning until smooth. Then add in 1 cup of Parmesan cheese to thicken it up just a little bit.

Once the sauce is ready, it’s time to assemble the dish. First, take about ¼ cup of the sauce and cover the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish. Then fill each shell with a heaping spoonful of the mixture.

Next, pour the remainder of your sauce over the shells.

Cover with foil and bake at 350° F for 30 minutes. Remove it from the oven, cover it with 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered an additional 15 minutes.

Serve with a side of garlic bread made with Italian Garlic Seasoning and you’ll have a new family favorite for sure.

One last note: you may have noticed I only used one Tastefully Simple product to make these Chicken & Broccoli-Stuffed Shells. It might seem weird to have a blog centered on a recipe with a single product, but to me that is the beauty of Tastefully Simple. By having a well-stocked pantry of Tastefully Simple seasonings, you can take a normal, everyday meal to the next level with our expert flavor. Plus, when you order one of our meal collections, you’re going to have seasonings leftover to use up, which makes this the perfect recipe. Not to mention, it really is delicious – so sometimes one product is all it takes to impress!

Enjoy!

Stacy