I started out on my own 12 years ago. I barely cooked hamburger helper good enough to eat. Which is odd because my mom always cooked. I grew up on home cooked meals and talent in the kitchen. I quickly stopped trying to be perfect with a recipe and started thinking outside the box and became more comfortable in the kitchen.
A few months ago I made Chicken Parmesan for the first time. I have to admit it has never really sounded good to me. My other half on the other hand loves it. I made it and it was a hit among my family but a whole piece of chicken on a pile of pasta was just not my thing. I let it go,thinking I will have to cook it on occasion for my boyfriend.
Then one day recently I was feeling that overwhelming feeling of insecurity in my own kitchen. I had a few ideas of what I wanted for dinner that night but couldn't choose or I didn't have the food on hand I needed.I started to get slightly moody. Then after opening my pasta cabinet and seeing jumbo/large shells. I thought, "Hm, I haven't made stuffed shells before.." problem was the recipes I found,and don't get me wrong I didn't look into a gazillion recipes. I did a Pinterest sweep,didn't in-cooperate what I had here in the house. I had chicken out, meaning the hamburg ones were out of the equation;that meant half the recipes I found were eliminated. I am not a fly to the store type person.
Continuing on, the chicken ones seemed to all involve spinach or broccoli. The TWO things my boyfriend REALLY does not like. Don't even get me started on what my kids would say if I tried serving that. (Although they eat a bigger list of vegetables then Mr.Boyfriend).
This is the part in the story where I tell you that my little light bulb went off and I got creative in a simple fast easy way!
I decided to combine both things. Leading to Chicken Parm Stuffed Shells. Now again there could be a better recipe of this out there. I am not saying I created it. But I didn't find any in the 15 seconds of browsing,I didn't follow a recipe and I'm a little proud.
What you need: Round 1
4-5 small-Medium chicken breast (This is based on filling one box of large shells)
1 cup of Chicken broth
Dash of salt
Pinch of Pepper
Put all that into your crock pot,yes that easy. Cook on low for 6-7 hrs. Life keeps moving and dinner is on its way to perfection.
When its close to dinner and the chicken is done,shred it right in the crock pot. Add a cup of diced tomato's and a jar of spaghetti sauce.(Keep in mind you might not need the whole jar) I used Ragu Garden Combination. Mix until all the chicken is covered.
Now cook your Large shells. I used 1 box. I made sure to keep a close eye on them so they didn't over cook. I didn't want them to break apart.
While they cook,take a 13x9 pan and cover the bottom with any flavor spaghetti sauce you want. I once again used the Garden Combination flavor Ragu has. You can use any size pan you need. Then place your oven on 350*.
Once cooked,drain and run under cold water so they are easier to handle. Then take the chicken mixture and place into each shell. Mine were pretty full. You can be the judge on how you want to stuff them.
I placed them in the sauce covered 13x9 dish. Once they were all in the pan,I spooned more sauce over the shells.
Next step was to cover with shredded cheese. I used a Parmesan mixed with other cheeses. I forgot the kind,but I bought it at Market Basket if that helps! I do believe I used almost 3 cups of cheese. You might want less or more. For the final bit, I topped them with Italian bread crumbs and tossed into the oven. 12 minutes later,it was dinner time!
Once the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly hot. Serve.
This is where a fantastic blogger has a finished product photo, I how ever served the food to my "starving" family and never got the photo! They were delicious! You could do this a number of different ways. Which is what I love. Enjoy Dinner!
