Chicken Manicotti With Red Pepper Cream Sauce

Submitted by Kittencalrecipezazz

"Delicious stuffed manicotti shells with the most amazing red pepper cream sauce! This recipe serves six, but may be doubled easily if desired."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 12 large manicotti
• 1 -2 tablespoon oil
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cut up (reduced fat is okay)
• 3⁄4 cup half-and-half cream or 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1⁄2 cup roasted sweet red pepper, chopped, more if desired
• 1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimentos, drained (optional)
• 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 2 cups diced cooked chicken or 2 cups diced cooked turkey
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and well drained
• 2 -3 tablespoons thinly sliced onions
• salt and pepper

directions

1. Set oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 3-quart baking dish.
3. Cook the pasta until tender; drain and rinse under cold water, toss with 1-2 Tbsp oil so the pasta won't stick together; set aside.
4. Meanwhile, for the sauce, in a heavy-bottomed small saucepan, stir the cream cheese and 1/4 cup half and half over med-low heat until smooth.
5. Stir in remaining half and half cream.
6. Stir in the sweet peppers OR pimiento (if using), and Parmesan cheese; heat through, and mix.
7. For the filling, in a large bowl, stir together 3/4 cup of the sauce (set the remaining sauce aside), the cooked chicken, broccoli, onion, salt and pepper.
8. Using a small spoon, stuff each manicotti with about 1/4 cup of the filling.
9. Place in the prepared baking dish.
10. Bake, covered for 20-30 minutes, or until heated through.
11. Place 2 manicotti on each serving plate, spoon sauce over the shells.
12. NOTE:If desired, fresh minced garlic may be added to the cream sauce.

Reviews

[dianegrapegrower]

Had to do significant tweaking on this recipe. There wasn't enough sauce to moisten the filling and top the dish. I added garlic, and used BOTH pimento and roasted red pepper, and needed to add more red bell pepper. The flavor blend is nice, but needs something - parsley? cayenne? more onion? but overall impact, even after all my tweaking, was a bit bland.

 

[jody.molengraff]

This was a deeelicious recipe! A little time-consuming, like it says, but well worth it! I would be sure to only cook the pasta until "al-dente" or a little less -- the manicotti is very difficult to handle if it is at all overcooked! It will bake the rest of the way in the oven.