Chicken and Sweetcorn Lasagne

Chicken and sweetcorn Lasagne - A family favourite, tender pieces of chicken breast and sweetcorn in a veggie packed pasta sauce all topped with a delicious lighter béchamel sauce and cheese.

Chicken Lasagne

One of my families favourite dishes is lasagne and really you can turn almost any food ingredient into a delicious lasagne recipe.

We love my Yummy Beef Lasagne with Sweet Potato but occasionally I like to make a chicken one and this one is really delicious. It such a simple recipe, where no jarred sauces are needed and will convert you instantly. Homemade sauces for lasagne are so easy to make and just taste so much more delicious and fresh.

It's a great recipe for serving up in the middle of the table (our favourite way to eat as a family), for everyone to grab a portion with some sides and dig in and enjoy.

Veggie Packed Pasta Sauce

When it comes to pasta sauces, these are a great way to include healthy vegetables in a dish, especially if you have fussy kids (or adults). The vegetables you add to the sauce really add lots of flavour to the sauce too. While just tomato sauces are great they just don't compare to a pasta sauce that has lots of different vegetables hidden in there.

For this pasta sauce I use:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Carrot
• Red Pepper
• Tomatoes (canned)
• Dried Herbs (but you can use fresh too)
• Stock

Once ready the sauce is all blended so it's lovely and smooth and no one will even know all those veggies are in there.

Lighter Bechamel Sauce

When embarking on a healthy eating plan, we often think we can't have things like a nice béchamel sauce on a lasagne. Instead we see replacements using yoghurt, quark or even eggs and they just don't compare in my opinion, the taste is not right for one.

It's really easy to make a simple lighter béchamel sauce using milk, some seasonings, a little parmesan and some cornstarch and best of all is it's gluten free too. This will result is a delicious creamy tasting white sauce that is just perfect.

Remember this is a lifestyle change, food should be enjoyable, there is no need for all these diet foods items etc. A little bit of the things you love with a couple of changes will be much more enjoyable and is easier to maintain long term.

Poaching Chicken

For the chicken breast in this recipe, I like to poach the chicken in a little stock instead of pan frying. The poached means the chicken absorbs some of the flavour and stock keeping it nice and tender. It is so easy to shred up for things like this lasagne, soups and salads etc when you cook this way.

Poaching chicken is so easy, just submerged in some stock and gently simmer until the chicken is cooked (approx 10-12 minutes depending on the size of the chicken breasts) you can slice up into small pieces if you prefer to quicken this time).

Can I use already cooked chicken in Lasagne?

Got some leftover roast chicken and wondering if you can use that in this recipe? You sure can, this recipe is perfect for leftover chicken.

I have even used leftover turkey at Christmas to make this lasagne, makes a change from the Christmas dinner everyone is fed up of one Christmas is over.

Best Cheese for Lasagne

In this lasagne I use 3 different cheeses, but really you can use whatever cheese you prefer.

For this Chicken Lasagne I use parmesan in the béchamel sauce and then some mozzarella and cheddar on top.

You will notice the cheddar has a more orange colour to it, that's because cheddar here in North America tends to have Annatto added to it. We can get white cheddar but it's not as popular. My favourite cheddar to use is Balderson Medium Canadian Cheddar.

Another great option for that colour is Red Leicester cheese and it has great flavour too.

Best Lasagne Pasta

There are different types of lasagne pasta available. Fresh and dried, then flat and wavy edges sheets. Obviously if you are following Slimming Eats you need to opt for the dried slices as fresh is not a free food.

Then there are also dried oven ready lasagne sheets or dried standard lasagne sheets, the latter you usually need to parboil before assembling your lasagne, otherwise the sheets might be a little hard still once the lasagne is cooked.

Can Lasagne be frozen?

For the best results it's always best freezing lasagne once it is all assembled before the oven baking stage. That way you can defrost in the fridge and then bake in the oven until cooked. This will ensure you don't have over cooked pasta. You can cook from frozen, but it will take a lot longer.

You can still freeze any leftovers of this too, I just add any leftover portions to a oven proof freezable container and pop in the freezer. Then to reheat I defrost in the fridge and heat up in the microwave or oven until heated through.

Sides for Lasagne

This lasagne recipe is pretty filling and so we always just serve this in the middle of the table with a fresh mixed salad of Crisp Romaine Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Red Pepper and Red Onion.

If you love some chips or fries too, then this recipe for Homemade Oven Baked Chips is the perfect method for golden crispy chips/fries.

More Pasta Bake Recipes

Love pasta bake recipes? Check out some of these:

• Creamy Garlic Chicken and Spinach with Penne Pasta
• Baked Feta Pasta with Chicken
• BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Bake
• One Pot Taco Beef Pasta
• Pasta Chicken Enchiladas
• One Pot Beef Stroganoff Pasta
• Ricotta and Spinach Pasta

or if you would like some more sides to choose from - check out the Side Dish Recipes on Slimming Eats or head on over to the FULL RECIPE INDEX where you will find over 900 delicious recipes and can search by ingredients, course, diet and more.

All with estimated calories and Slimming Eats and Weight Watcher Smart Points values.

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