Cheesy Chicken Shells

For a few months, I've been wanting to try a stuffed shell recipe that sounded perfect for winter. My friend and I attempted a few times to make it, but sicknesses and other things kept getting in the way. We finally made it last night!

Cheesy Chicken Shells
POINTS® Value: 9
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 30 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

WW Note: Enjoy this rich, classic favorite with fewer calories. Trim the cooking time by using a pre-cooked chicken, available at your deli counter.

Ingredients

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.
• Cook manicotti shells in boiling water according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent them from cooking further. Set aside.
• Coat a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of sauce evenly over bottom of pan and set aside.
• For filling, in a large bowl, stir together egg whites, ricotta cheese, chicken, spinach, garlic powder and seasoning. Stir in 1/4 cup each of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
• To assemble, spoon cheese mixture into manicotti shells and place filled shells in a single layer in baking dish. Spread remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses and bake about 30 minutes. Yields 3 shells per serving.

We totally did not think 3 shells was enough for a serving (especially not for my fiance!), so we steamed some broccoli as a side and I planned on him having 2 servings.

Were we wrong! My fiance ate 1 and a half shells, I ate 2 and my friend was actually able to eat all 3, but only because she had run 6 miles before coming over and I had gotten in a good workout as well. These were WAY more filling than we expected!

Unfortunately, they were not as tasty as we expected. Part of the reason my fiance didn't eat it all was because he felt there was too much spinach. Granted, he's not a huge spinach lover and we did add a TEENY extra, but I agree - the ratio of spinach to chicken was not as good as it could have been. Maybe we should have added more chicken.

They also just weren't as flavorful as I expected. Maybe salt or a stronger-tasting cheese would have helped. He also said the shells were hard, but they were baked - so I think they were supposed to be.

My friend really enjoyed it and said she'd make it again, but I don't plan to. It's not a lot of prep work, but it's not the quickest or easiest recipe. Definitely not hard, just not worth the outcome.

Two major complaints about the recipe:
1) It doesn't say in the ingredient list to divide the mozzarella or Parmesan. So we measured out what the directions said and then had complicated calculations to figure out how much Parm we were supposed to use at the end! Saying "divided" in the list would have been easier.

2) It doesn't say how much filling to put in each shell. We started out putting a decent amount in and saw that we were going to have a TON left. So we went back and stuffed them even further. So either fully stuff them or make more shells. But a note in the recipe about how much to put per shell would have been nice.

We ended up having 6 leftover! That's 2 whole servings - 4 if you only eat 2, as we did. They weren't awful, but definitely not one of my favorites. I don't plan on making this again.