Hot Wing Chicken Lasagna

Mission Hot Wings!

It's a wonderful day, and it's about to get even better! I am on a mission, and I think I will call it, mission hot wings.

I have this unwavering affection for hot sauce, and all things spicy. After creating my tasty, Hot Wing Chicken Bites, and the sauce...I dream about that sauce because it is so delicious. I knew I needed to create another recipe where that wonderful sauce would be the highlight of the meal.

My second reason for "mission hot wings" is my family is having a very busy week with back to school shopping, and my Baby Girl attending band practice all day.

My goal was to create a  meal that she could easily heat up at night, when she returned home from a long day of practice.

Lasagna is a dish where not only is it the perfect reheat-able dish, it's also the perfect meal for leftovers. 

This dish goes together fairly quickly. Once we season the chicken tenders, and while there baking, prepare the red and white sauces.

I like to puree the tomatoes and cooked vegetables in a blender. Then, I add the hot sauce to the mixture and stir well.

It's important that you rinse the pasta with cold water, then add a little olive oil to prevent sticking, also cook the pasta for 6 minutes only, it will finish cooking as it bakes. 

For the chicken, I like to put the cooked chicken in my food processor, and pulse to chop it up.

Don't puree it, but give it a course chop, then add the chicken to the tomato/hot sauce mixture, stir well and set aside.

To assemble, place a little chicken/hot sauce mixture on the bottom of the greased casserole, top with pasta, then more chicken/hot sauce mixture, white cheese sauce, a little grated cheese and repeat.

Cover in foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove foil and bake 20 minutes more.

Hot out the oven, now for the difficult part, please allow the lasagna to rest at least 10-15 minutes before cutting, to prevent all the cheese goodness from oozing everywhere.

Not that it's a bad thing, but for the sake of presentation, we must wait!

See, time flew by, and look at the nice clean cut.

I thought you might enjoy a close up, and yes...I did sprinkle extra gorgonzola cheese on top!
 
Hot "Wing" Chicken Lasagna

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 6-8  

Ingredients: 

4 chicken breast, or 12 chicken tenders

1 tablespoon creole seasoning
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano, crushed
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated
2 cups jack cheese, grated
1 box Barilla lasagna noodles
Extra virgin olive oil

For the red sauce:

14 oz. tomatoes, crushed

1 cup hot sauce
1 small white onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced
3 cloves, garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced

1/2 bunch of green onions, sliced

1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon creole seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

For the white cheese sauce:

1 6oz. container gorgonzola cheese

1 15oz. container part skim ricotta
1/2 cup Ken’s steak house blue cheese dressing
1/2 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Light dressing
1 egg, beaten
1 cup Chobani Greek Yogurt, plain
2 cups jack cheese, grated

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon creole seasonings

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To prepare chicken, mix seasoning blend and set aside.  Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Boil lasagna noodles for 6 minutes, drain, rinse with warm water, drain again and coat with a little olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking.

Rinse chicken, pat dry and place on a baking sheet. Add olive oil and seasonings to chicken and mix well. Bake chicken at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and set aside. 

Prepare white cheese sauce by mixing all ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.

To prepare red sauce, heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions, bell pepper, and celery, saute for about 5 minutes. Add seasonings and garlic and cook 1 minute more.

Add tomatoes. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree mixture in a blender, add hot sauce, stir, and set aside.

To assemble lasagna, chop or shred chicken and add to tomato sauce. Mix mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, and jack cheese together and set aside.

Spray a 13X9 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread about 1 cup of tomato/chicken mixture on bottom of casserole dish.

Lay cooked lasagna noodles slightly overlapping. Spread more tomato/chicken mixture, top with a layer of white cheese sauce, sprinkle a little of jack/mozzarella/parmigiano mixture. Top with a another layer of lasagna noodles. Repeat twice.

On top of final layer, spread remaining chicken/tomato sauce mixture, white cream sauce, and remaining grated cheese mixture.

Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes, remove foil and bake 20 minutes more or until cheese is nice and bubbly.

Allow lasagna to cool 10 minutes before cutting.