Chicken and Kale Casserole
March 28, 2013
Chicken and kale casserole is an easy and hearty casserole. This is a great casserole to feed your family a weeknight dinner.
Hey guys for the next couple of weeks I will have some of my favorite food bloggers guest posting for me while I spend time with my family. You can read more about it here.
Today I have Rachel from Rachel Cook’s! I love reading her daily updates on her blog. She had her second child right after I had Olivia so it’s nice to see what her little one is up too. Her family is absolutely precious! I love the simplicity in her recipes and they are something that the whole family will enjoy! Some of my favorites are the sweet potato chips that are made in a microwave and the homemade taco seasoning mix. I hope you enjoy this recipe that Rachel has shared with you today!
ENJOY ~ Meagan
Hi A Zesty Bite readers! When I heard about Meagan’s mom, I wanted to help in the only way I knew how–by providing some content for her blog so she can spend this precious time with her mom and the rest of their family. I love that Meagan grew up cooking with her mom and wants to keep the blog going during this time because her mom loves reading her blog. I also love to cook with my mom and some of my best memories with her were formed around a cutting board and a hot stove, so I know where Meagan is coming from in that regard. If you don’t know me, I’m Rachel of Rachel Cooks. I’m a stay-at-home mom of two (one spirited 2.5-year-old girl and one charming 3 month old boy), a food blogger (obviously), and a doctor of physical therapy. The last job is mostly confined to weekends right now while I focus my time and energy on raising the two crazy kids. My website focuses on easy, accessible recipes that the whole family with love. You’ll find healthy recipes…and some that aren’t quite as healthy. I believe in the mantra “everything in moderation,” and I believe in balance.
In other words, you gotta have a little CHEESE with your kale. Can I get an “Amen?”
This chicken and kale casserole fulfills that requirement. Plenty of cheese, plenty of pasta, but plenty of kale and lean protein too. My husband loved this dish (and he’s not a huge cheese fan), and my daughter ate it too.
Okay…she didn’t eat the kale–just the pasta and chicken. But she’s two. And she dips jicama sticks in hummus so I’m not worried. We’ll get there.
This makes a gigantic batch so feel free to scale back if you’re not a fan of leftovers. I for one am definitely on team leftovers. I love to cook, but a night off? Always welcomed. Gives me more time to focus on the non-essentials like cupcakes and cookies. Or perhaps dinner is a non-essential and cupcakes are essential? Probably depends on what kind of day you’re having.
Also, I typed up this recipe some time back. At the bottom, I typed this: “Note: You may prepare ahead of time and store in fridge until ready to bake. This would be a great meal to prepare for another family (illness, baby, etc.), because everything is cooked, and all they need to do is warm it through.” Umm…kinda crazy, right? Someone that lives close to Meagan—do me a favor and make this for her family.
Chicken and Kale Casserole
Ingredients
- salt and pepper
- one 13.25 ounce box of whole grain pasta shells
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced small
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1.5-2 bunches of kale, tough stems and ribs removed, torn or chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 3-4 cups of cooked, chopped or shredded chicken (I used a 1 ½ pound package of boneless skinless breasts)
- 30 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ½ cup loosely packed parsley, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and return to pot, or dump into a very large bowl.
- In a large skillet, melt butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until onion is softened, stirring frequently (2-3 minutes). Add kale, cover and cook for about five minutes or until kale is tender.
- Transfer to pot or bowl with pasta.
- Add chicken, cheeses, lemon zest, and parsley. Stir until ricotta and all other ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Spread into a 9×13 pan, and bake for 30 minutes or until heated through and golden brown.
Husband’s take: Loved it!
Changes I would make: None.
Difficulty: Pretty easy!
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This looks delicious! I love kale and all those cheesy noodles are calling my name!
I love the sound of this. Must-try for sure!
Oh wow, I LOVE all of the flavors in this dish. Looks so comforting and satisfying. Well done, Rachel! 🙂
Ahhhh so delicious!
Yup…I need to make this!
I think I just found my new favorite way to eat kale. This dish looks wonderful and we are ALWAYS looking for new ways to eat chicken!
Not only does this sound good, it looks great!! Amazing photos!!!!
I think I just found tonight’s dinner!
This sounds delicious! I would love to try making a vegetarian version using seitan in place of the chicken. Yum :).
Kale is where it’s at!! Love this dish!
Just catching up on your blog and so sorry to hear about your mom, Megan. Sending lots of prayers to all of you. Glad to see Rachel here sharing this delicious dish of comfort food. Definitely adding this to my must -try list!
when do you add the chicken?
Hey Alicia,
I updated the recipe and you will add it with the cheeses.
Any thoughts on making this ahead and freezing?
You should be able to freeze this recipe.
How would you scale this back to serve 4?
Please help! 🙂
Hey Cindy,
This was a guest post for me and the original creator is Rachel from Rachel Cooks.
Can this be made the night before without baking and then bake the next day?
30 ounces of ricotta is 2 containers, is this right, it seems like alot?
Hi Letitia,
This was a guest post by Rachel from Rachel Cook’s but I believe that is the right amount of ricotta.
I made this recipe tonight. It seems like their should be more kale so I actuall y ended up doing 5 cups and I would maybe even do 6 in order to give a nice uniform green look to the dish. So hopefully this is yummy! I didnt see how much this recipe served on the actually recipe and I would scale it back in 1/2 for two people while still having left overs. 🙂
I thought it tasted pretty good! It was too dry for my liking though. Maybe next time I’ll add some heaven cream to make it creamier.
I just found this recipe and had to try it. I was concerned it may turn out a little dry so I added about a half cup of Greek yogurt (didn’t actually measure). I’m glad I did- It was delicious! I actually also did half ricotta and half cottage cheese just because I love the texture. This one will be repeated for sure!
Thanks for letting me know Stephanie.
I gave this recipe a try tonight. I love Kale and cheese. I followed this recipe exactly, but my boyfriend and I really were not fans. It seemed kind of dry, which surprised me since there was so much cheese. The lemon zest was overwhelming. I really wanted to like it, but this just wasn’t our thing.
Thanks for letting me know about trying out this dish.
It tasted like farts
I think something is missing, I thought it was rather dry, maybe cut back on the amount of pasta. The taste is good, but very dry, maybe save the mozzarella for the top and not cook in with pasta
I made this for the first time a couple weeks ago and I’m obsessed! I add hot sauce on top when I eat it because in my mind, everything cheesy goes good with hot sauce 🙂 but even without it, it’s so good.
The recipe is super easy to customize. I ended up doing a GF version and just using 2ish cups of brown rice and also added some broccoli just because I love it. Also for some reason (COVID-related I’m sure) the grocery store hasn’t had ricotta cheese for weeks, so I used a mixture of small curd low fat cottage cheese, goat cheese, and greek yogurt instead, and still so good! I think next time I’m going to try a ratio heavier on the cottage cheese and greek yogurt with only a little goat cheese (or ricotta if they have it!) to see if an even healthier version will taste as good.
I love this recipe so much I’ve already made it twice! I’m not much for cooking, so I made some extra this last time to freeze. This is my new favorite way to eat kale 🙂 Thank you!!
I made this recipe last night and it turned out horrible. It was bland. The noodles were mushy. All I could taste was the lemon zest. I am upset that I wasted all of that cheese. I had to throw it all away and I really hate to waste food. I do not recommend this recipe.