Chicken and Kale Casserole

By Pikachutherecipereader

We made this last night with spinich. It was incredibly bland! I think we will play with adding spices to this the next time we make it to give it more flavor. The combination of ingredients are fine, it just doesn't have any other background flavoring beyond the creaminess. We think the chicken could be seasoned before adding it to the sauce as well as using a white onion instead of a yellow one. Taste the food at each step to make sure it has a better balance beyond the cream flavor.

I made this tonight (because I've just discovered kale is a pretty tasty thing!) and I found it has a good flavor, but like others have said it is very dry. I used 36oz of ricotta. After pouring it into the baking dish I thought it really needed something more so I added a little mozzarella cheese to the top. It is very tasty and the lemon zest gives it a different twist but next time I'll add some sort of cream sauce. This time a dollop of sour cream on top of my serving did the trick!

I added some heavy whipping cream during the kale sauté process, as well as some thyme. It all baked up nicely and we didn't find it to be dry or bland, at least not with the additions we made. It was yummy! And we have leftovers for days (just the 2 of us), which is awesome because we work from home and often need a quick lunch (really, we just forget to eat lunch until we're starving and then it's like "Feed me now, ahhhhh!"). I recommend it; kind of like a white lasagna, you could say.

I'm a big fan of edf and make lots of the recipes and I have to say I love is simple, hearty casserole. I don't think there are any changes that need to be made... I disagree with some of the comments that it was dry or bland. I thought it was wonderful just the way the recipe is, I will make it again and again!

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 pound large pasta shells
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large yellow onion, diced medium
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bunches kale (1 1/2 pounds), tough stems and ribs removed, leaves coarsely chopped
• 2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (from 1/2 rotisserie chicken)
• 1 container (48 ounces) part-skim ricotta
• 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 3/4 cup Parmesan, grated (2 1/4 ounces)

Preparation

Step 1

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain; return to pot. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high. Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is beginning to soften, 4 minutes. Add kale, cover, and cook until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to pot with pasta.

Stir in chicken, ricotta, lemon zest, and 1/2 cup Parmesan; season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; top with 1/4 cup Parmesan. Bake until top is golden, 30 minutes.