Super-Easy Chicken Manicotti

By Addie

Super easy! No precooked noodles, just five ingredients and only three easy steps.

Ingredients

• 1 jar (25.5 oz)pasta sauce (any variety)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 1/2 lb uncooked chicken breast tenders (not breaded)
• 14 uncooked manicotti shells (8 oz)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
• Chopped fresh basil leaves, if desired

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, mix pasta sauce and water. Spread about 1/3 of the pasta sauce mixture in ungreased 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish.

Sprinkle garlic salt on chicken. Insert chicken into uncooked manicotti shells, stuffing from each end of shell to fill if necessary. Place shells on pasta sauce in baking dish. Pour remaining pasta sauce evenly over shells, covering completely. Cover with foil.

Bake about 1 hour or until chicken is no longer pink in center and shells are tender. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with basil.

Expert Tips:

Make this one-dish meal even prettier by garnishing with fresh oregano.

Stir a tablespoon or two of red wine or beef broth into the spaghetti sauce for a deeper flavor.
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REVIEWS:

Very easy to make and loved it! My daughter said I was the best chef ever, lol! Would definitely recommend.

This was really good!!! Kids loved it. Baking with the foil on TIGHT and not peeking in, I think was key to keeping everything moist. Kids mentioned they might like more marinara....and marinating the chicken might add more zip. You could also mix the chicken with some ricotta and Parmesan - will make again for sure!

No good! The chicken was dry and the whole thing was plain gross. I threw it away!

Very easy to make, although I wasn't a big fan of handling the raw chicken that much. The pasta came out a little chewy even though I added a can of tomatoes, thinking that the extra liquid would help the pasta cook more. I will make this again, but will add more liquid and more spices. I had 2 shells left after I had stuffed in all the chicken so I made a quick mixture of cottage cheese (I didn't have any ricotta), shredded cheddar and Italian spices and stuffed them with that - I think it was even better than the chicken!

This was super easy to make and I loved it but I added way more cheese then what it called for so it was basically cheese smothered noodles. And even my picky eater loved it...but next time I plan on making it I think I'm going to marinade the chicken the night before and dip it into the sauce so they don't dry out as much. But then again I could have just slightly over cooked the chicken trying to get all the cheese to melt and brown.

This was a hit at the house for the family plus the picky mother-in-law. I bought the wrong size manicotti shells so my chicken tenders had to be cut up first before being placed inside, but other than that it was great. Added some ricotta cheese since I had to cut up the chicken and was good to go. (I also make my tomato sauce from scratch vs. store bought)

I just made this for my family and it was a HUGE hit! It was easy to make and totally delicious! I did make my own maranara sauce (Tomato sauce, italian seasoning, and garlic and onion powder) And added extra cheese. I am definitely making this again!

Everyone I've made this dish for loved it. I did make one change. Instead of the uncooked chicken I used Tyson Grilled & Ready fully cooked chicken breast strips. I also use a little more sauce then the recipe calls for because my husband liked his sauce.

This recipe is great with the chicken but its better with ground beef..my family loves it when I cook this.

Definitely a great dish! I did make a few changes to the original recipe, which made it more than 3 steps and 5 ingredients. I pre-cooked the chicken and shredded it, then mixed it with ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and cooked spinach. I used this mix to stuff the manicotti. Definitely a good idea to cover the noodles completely because I missed a few spots and the noodles were hard in those areas. Oops! Lesson learned. Topped the noodles off with some extra mozzarella cheese and crushed red pepper flakes. Love it!

My husband and I love this dish! We changed it a little by adding ricotta cheese and spinach. If you chop the spinach up and add it to the ricotta before stuffing, it makes it a little easier. And I did go by some of the other reviews and made sure the shells were completely covered and it cooked perfectly! Super easy and really good.

Plain chicken inside the manicotti seemed a little dull so I cut up the chicken tenders and mixed them with shredded mozzarella, a container of whipped cream cheese, italian seasoning and minced garlic. Turned out really good, just a tad on the dry side. Next time I think I will increase the sauce.

I just made this tonight and it was delicous! I used a different sauce and I didnt add water and it still turned out great. I think the trick to keeping the chicken moist was keeping on the foil.

I have made this a few time and it is definitely a family favorite. Just add garlic bread

This was good and really easy, I cut my chicken into smaller chunks before stuffing. It made it easier to shove in and also easier to eat.