Chicken Manicotti With Chive Cream Sauce

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 12 packaged dry manicotti
• 1 (8 ounce) container soft cream cheese , with chives and onion (this is like the spreadable bagel cheese)
• 2⁄3; cup milk
• ¼ cup grated romano cheese or ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli , thawed and drained
• 3 ½ ounces jarsroasted red sweet peppers, drained and sliced or 1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimentos , drained
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• paprika , to taste

Directions:

1. Cook manicotti according to package directions and also cool manicotti shells according to package directions.
2. Drain shells; rinse with cold water.
3. Drain again.
4. Meanwhile, for sauce, in small heavy saucepan melt cream cheese over medium-low heat, stirring constantly.
5. Slowly add milk, stirring until smooth.
6. Stir in romano or parmesan cheese.
7. Remove from heat.
8. For filling, in a medium mixing bowl stir together 3/4 cup of sauce, the chicken, broccoli, red sweet peppers or pimento and pepper.
9. Using a small spoon, carefully fill each manicotti shell with about 1/3 cup of filling.
10. Arrange the filled shells in a 3-quart rectangular baking dish.
11. Pour the remaining sauce over shells.
12. Sprinkle with paprika.
13. Cover with foil.
14. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through.

Reviews

[Recipewrestler]

Loved the cream cheese chive sauce in this dish! It was easy and sooo good! I can think of all sorts of variations on this dish. Manicotti noodles can be a challenge to work with. I think I'd use lasagna noodles and layer the ingredients or I could put this over egg noodles or over rice. I tried this dish on two guys painting the outside of our cottage. They sincerely said that they would be guinea pigs for me any time I wanted to cook. DH enjoyed this one too. We're not pimento or bell pepper fans, so I carmelized some onion to use in the place of these ingredients. Make sure your chicken and brocolli are chopped fairly small.

[jswinks]

This is a delicious meal. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of how time consuming it is to fill the shells, otherwise I'd make it much more often.

[KB Cook]

I have never ate nor cooked manicotti before, so this was a first for me the whole way around. I love the idea of the cream cheese, which seemed like a simple additive. My husband absolutely loved it, but to me seemed a little dry (remember, i've never had it before) He assured me that is what the texture is supposed to me. But either way, the taste was delicious. Will be making again! Thanks for the great recipe!