Sometimes limitations bring forth the best creations.
Recently, on a message board someone wanted to make stuffed shells. She wanted to use chicken, no red sauce, no spinach and no ricotta. She did have a jar of alfredo sauce. I don’t know what the woman ended up making, but this is what I suggested. It sounded so good, I decided to try it myself.
Chicken, broccoli and mozzarella cheese fill the shells which are covered with alfredo sauce and baked. Bonus -the recipe makes enough to put some in the freezer.
I don’t know what happened to my ingredient picture. I remember taking it, but I can’t find it now.
- 3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
- 3-4 cups cooked and salted broccoli
- 2 cups finely shredded mozzarella
- 1 box jumbo shells, cooked according to package directions
- 2 jars alfredo sauce
Mix the chicken, broccoli and mozzarella together in a bowl. Fill the shells with the mixture.
I used half of the shells and froze the other half. Half of the shells filled a 9×13 casserole dish. Spread a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan. Lay the shells in the dish in a single layer. Pour the sauce over the top.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or till hot and bubbly.
To freeze: place the filled shells in a plastic zip top freezer bag.
To cook them, thaw the shells in the refrigerator and then fix them as you did the fresh batch.
One half of this recipe is plenty for 6 people if you serve salad and bread with the shells.
How often do you cook ahead of time and freeze meals?
Oh these look so yummy! My family would love these….thanks for the inspiration.
oh goodness… that looks divine!
What luck that you posted this, today! My daughter and her family are here and she has a very picky 16 year old daughter who loves chicken and alfredo sauce. Am heading to the store shortly and this will definitely make my menu for the week!! Thanks…you must have read my mind.
Any tips on how to stuff them without ripping the shells? I made stuffed shells a time or two a few years ago but at least half of them ended up ripped down the middle…
I think the trick to keeping the shells intact is to not over cook them. Try cooking the minimum time that is recommended on the package.
Put the mixture in a pastrie bag and squeeze it into the shells . Hope this helps .
Gosh, those look so awesome! I want to eat right off my computer!
Ohmygosh- That looks sooo good!! I am going to try these at some point 🙂
This looks wonderful! I’m adding this to my meal plan for next week.
These look so good. They are gong on my fall list to try!!!
this past sunday, I cooked 3 dishes, which for me and my husband came out to 7 meals. I try to cook at least one extra meal over the weekend so it’s ready on a busy night. I made stuffed shells (not these ones though, the traditional one) Stuffed Peppers, and Meatballs. I froze one serving of each ( you can just freeze the stuffed pepper mix and then defrost and use fresh peppers when cooking) for both me and my husband. I love cooking ahead, so when we get home from work we can enjoy our meal, and do something else, rather than spend time cooking and cleaning up!
I love to stock our freezer with meals or at least cooked meat, so that we can do quick meals.
Once every 2 months we do a weekend where my hubby fires up the smoker and we fill it with cornish hens, turkey breasts, ribs, and pork butt. Then we will wrap everything up and it is ready to use over the next few months. We also did this before vacation and took ribs, pulled pork and turkey with us camping. Saved us some money on dinners for a few nights.
I also prepare once a month a pasta dish (lasagna or a pasta bake) and will double the receipe so once can go in the freezer (or take to a friend if needed) and then we have one for that week to use.
The more that I can do on a weekend that we aren’t busy, it will save me on the weeks and weekends that we are busy.
I was thinking about mixing some pesto in with the chicken/broc/cheese mixture. What do you think??
Jess, I think yum! That sounds like a wonderful addition!
I’d love to try this recipe, is there an easy way to print it?
Wendy, at the bottom of each post is a set of icons called “Share and Enjoy”. The first icon in the set is the print icon. Click that. You will be able to select printing without photos so you don’t use up all your ink.
Thanks! 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful recipe idea! I just made this and it is excellent and SO easy! I have just started freezer cooking and love it. Thanks for your great website!
Just had these for dinner…..yummo! I did not have enough broccoli so added some frozen peas. Everyone loved this recipe.
These were delicious! I actually used ricotta cheese in mine also since I had some I needed to use up. I also ended up using manicotti shells instead since I swear I had large shells, but for the life of me couldn’t find them when I went to make this, so mine actually ended up being chicken and broccoli manicotti. Very yummy… thanks for the great recipe.
Hi! I made some Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells with Alfredo from your recipe – they were SO good! I still have lots frozen and ready to be eaten again, the BF was a big fan, and they were even better the next day for lunch. I added some panko breadcrumbs and parm cheese 15 mins before it was done, and baked the rest of the time uncovered. I will have to make these again (or try stuffing with other things) once we gobble up the meals in the freezer!
check out my post!
http://hithankyouplease.blogspot.com/2010/08/summer-days-and-stuffed-shells.html
Made this for the first time tonight, my kids LOVED it!! They ate the whole pan!! Thank you again for a wonderful recipe!
I made these last night. I changed the recipe a little to reflect what I had on hand. I used cheddar instead of mozzarella, only one jar of alfredo and I added finely chopped cooked bacon to the filling. They turned out so good. This is a keeper recipe. Thanks so much for posting.
I made these earlier to eat tonight (I have to work and didn’t want to cook after 10 tonight!), and my sister is doing everything she can think of to get me to let her eat them before supper! They smell delicious, and I honestly can’t blame her for trying so hard to gobble them up! Thanks!
I made these the other night and they were DE-LISH! Do you know what? They were even BETTER
oops…I was so excited, I hit ENTER before I was done typing my comment!
Anyway, they were even BETTER the next day as leftovers! Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe!
hiya tiffany! i made these last week for dinner and the were AAAHHHH-mazing! my hubs said he would eat them once a week! thanks for sharing the brilliant and EASY recipe! 🙂
I’m so glad you liked them!
Holy cow!!! AWESOME!!!!! Took a little extra prep time than I’m used to, but sooooooo worth it. While we were eating them, my husband and I were talking about other things we could “stuff” the shells with. I think next time I will add mushrooms. Mmmmmm!!!! Thanks for the recipe.
Did you mix the broccoli and mozzarella in with raw or cooked chicken? I was thinking of making this tomorrow! Looks delicious!
Nicole, I used cooked chicken.
Thank you! I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Tiffany, I just realized it said cooked chicken in the recipe! Sorry! Everyone loved this! Thank you for the great recipe!
have you ever baked these filled shells in red sauce? I’m guessing it would turn out fine? just not as creamy and yummy 🙂 just healthier.
Heidi, I’ve got 2 other stuffed shells recipes with red sauce. One is cheese filled and the other is Italian sausage and spinach filled. THey’re both good and you can freeze them too.
This looks delicious and i want to cook so bad but my husband is so picky and would not like broccoli, or probably no other green veggie. Is there some other kind of veggie i could use?
Amilea, other things that come to mind are spinach, artichokes (I’m guessing neither of those will hit his taste though). What about peas? Or tomatoes, either well-drained diced tomatoes or Roma tomatoes that are chopped. Or you could leave the veggies out and serve them on the side to those who like them.
These were soo Amazing!! I was afraid my husband was not going to like them because of the broccoli but he really enjoyed them. He actually licked his plate clean. I have to say im very thankful for this site Tiffany. I use to dread cooking because my son and husband were so picky. Now im actually enjoying cooking and finally enjoy seeing my husband satisfied with what i cook, even it its not my recipes. So thank you Tiffany i will be trying a lot more recipe in the future.
I was wondering how you cooked the chicken and broccoli before you stuffed it in the shells? Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try it!
Samantha, the chicken is fully cooked. The broccoli should be cooked till it’s tender. Hope that helps.
I made these tonight for dinner. Was absolutely delicious! The only thing I changed was I used homeade Alfredo sauce instead of the jarred.
Made these tonight, they were a DEFINITE hit with my hubby! I did his half with diced tomatoes and just added broccoli for mine 🙂 And I love that I have another meal frozen!! I was wondering, how long do you think these would keep in the freezer? I’m 6 months pregnant, and I’m trying to decide if these will keep that long.
Melissa, they should keep fine for that long. Even after 3-4 months, they will still be fine to use.
These look so good! I’ll definitely be making a variation of them soon, I love things I can freeze and pull out single servings of. I’m thinking a homemade garlicy white/cheese sauce is more to my liking, and maybe a little cottage cheese in the chicken/broccoli mix. Yum!
I was just wondering did you steam the broccoli? Can’t wait wait to try these!
Yes, I steam the broccoli.
I never use jarred Alfredo sauce because I’m afraid it won’t be good. Do you have a favorite go to???
I’ve used Classico mostly. And I may have used Newman’s Own a few times too.
These came out great and I did freeze some! When you were ready to cook the frozen shells did you thaw them out first? Thanks
You don’t have to thaw them, but if you don’t, give them a little extra time in the oven. It doesn’t take a lot longer though, they thaw quick.
Thanks 🙂
so I can’t eat broccoli since the having the gastric sleeve surgery, so I used spinach! Also I added some cheddar cheese in and on top. It was really good!
I made these and my daughter loved them. The second time I added some bread crumbs and some of the Alfredo to the chicken mixture, Then I put Alfredo on top and added cheese, paprika for color. They were great! Meant to post this a long time ago!
I have some cherry sized mozz balls. Will these work instead if shredded mozz?If these would work would you put one or two in each shell?
I think that would work great.
The recipe calls for 2 jars of alfredo sauce, is that for half the recipe (not including the frozen shells)? Or is one jar for now, and the other jar for the frozen ones later?
Great question! One jar would be used for the fresh recipe and the other one can be set aside for preparing the frozen recipe.