There's been a box of manicotti pasta in my cupboard for a while just waiting on me to figure out something different from meat sauce and cheese.
We hadn't had my chicken casserole in a while. That sounded tasty.
I did a quick mental run-down of ingredients I had on hand, when I got to the type of pasta, I hesitated. Normally, I'll use some sort of elbow or shell variety. This time I decided to try a twist, and grabbed the manicotti instead.
A few other basic ingredients got the ball rolling.
I used one hefty boiled chicken breast, carefully pulled into medium uniform pieces. I set that aside and moved on to preparing the sauce.
In a medium sauce pan, I placed 2 Tablespoons of Brummel and Brown spread (butter or margarine is okay) and an equal amount of cornstarch. I blended over a low heat 'til it pulled all together. Next, I added the small can of mushroom soup and blended it with the roux. When they were mixed, I tossed in 1 Tablespoon each of the the dried onion flakes, minced garlic and dried basil. Mixed those in thoroughly. Finally, I added one soup can full of milk. I raised the heat to medium - stirring continuously 'til the sauce thickened. (You can see it sticking to the side of the pan.)
When it got to my preferred consistency, I put it aside off the heat momentarily and loaded the chicken pieces into the uncooked manicotti. I just used my hands, no utensils. It's messy, but the most efficient method.
I only did one layer in a deep casserole dish. Taking note of the way I 'd arranged them, I poured all the sauce over the pasta. I happened to have a few pieces of chicken left over, so I placed them over each individual shell. The idea was to make it easier to know which way to take them out again.
I baked it at 325 F for about a half an hour. Just enough to cook the pasta through. I also put a few dabs of butter on the top with 10 minutes left to help it brown off.
Yum!!
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