Chicken Pesto Stuffed Shells
There's nothing more comforting than a good stuffed pasta. This recipe fills large al dente shells with a rich mixture of cream cheese, parmesan, pesto, and chicken. And to give it just the right amount of irresistible gooeyness, the shells are sprinkled with mozzarella before baking. Who could say no to that!
Ingredients
- 12 individual Jumbo/Large Shells
- 4 ounces Cream Cheese
- 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, Grated
- 6 tablespoons Pesto #1
- 2 cups cook and shred Chicken, Boneless Breasts
- 4 teaspoons mince Garlic, Cloves
- 6 tablespoons Pesto #2
- 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded
Containers
Cooking Instructions
Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions
These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).
Why would I want to freeze this?
- In a large pot boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package. Cook pasta shells only until al dente.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions
These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.
- Prep from frozen
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Make It Now Cooking Directions
These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.
- In a large pot boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package. Cook pasta shells only until al dente.
- Drain the pasta shells and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, pesto #1, chicken and garlic.
- Fill the pasta shells with the filling and place in a baking dish.
- Pour pesto #2 on top and sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over filled shells.
- Bake shells uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until shells are hot and cheese melts.
Nutrition Facts
- Servings Per Recipe
- 4 Servings
- Serving Size
- 3 stuffed shells Amount Per Serving
- Calories
- 868
- Total Fat
- 56g
- Saturated Fat
- 24g
- Trans Fat
- 1g
- Cholesterol
- 194mg
- Sodium
- 1649mg
- Total Carbohydrates
- 33g
- Fiber
- 1g
- Sugar
- 4g
- Protein
- 56g
- WW Freestyle
- 26
17 Comments
Join the discussionI had some left over chicken in the fridge and pizza dough on the counter. I saw this recipe and knew that I had to try it as a pizza topping. It was delicious. I’m making extra individual size pizzas to freeze today.This was yummy!
Oh that sounds delicious!
Just curious do you use white pasta shells. I have looked all over and haven’t found whole wheat shells and thus haven’t had them in some time. Do they even make whole wheat shells?? These look so yummy I might use them for roll ups in whole wheat lasagna I found.
I can only seem to find medium sized whole wheat shells when I look online http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ… But I think if you did them with whole wheat lasagna noodles as roll ups they would be great!
I’m making baby steps towards freezer cooking….definitely not ready to take on a once-a-month approach, but will be checking your mini-menus to start with. This recipe is going to be tried TONIGHT! 🙂 Side question – can I reuse a freezer bag?
Welcome Nikki! Hope you like the recipes. And yes you can reuse freezer bags, a lot of folks do. Just be sure to wash it out thoroughly with warm water and soap and let it air dry.
The recipe never says when to use the second amount of pesto. In the dish?
Hi! I watched the video on flash freezing, but just as you were about to tell us HOW to flash freeze, it ended. It is listed as 36 seconds long – did something get chopped off?
I’m just starting to learn freezing… you say put in pan and “Cover with foil and freeze” What kind of pan are you using- glass dish? And just covering with foil is good enough that it will keep well frozen?
You can use a glass dish or we commonly use foil pans. See this post for details – http://onceamonthmom.com/get-s…
I made this for dinner last night and to quote my husband, “This one’s a keeper!” I’ll admit that I used goat cheese instead of the mozzarella because we really like the combination of pesto and goat cheese so it wasn’t exactly the same as yours, but the filling was the same. We loved it. Thanks!
Oh goat cheese sounds wonderful! So glad it was a “keeper”.
aaaahhhh…
I just prepared this and froze 2 batches and THEN realized that I didn’t use cooked chicken.
Any suggestions?
Our suggestion would be to thaw completely, then bake at least 1 hour at 350F. To ensure chicken is done, it needs to be 165F. It may need to cook longer than 1 hour, you will just have to keep checking the internal temp of the chicken. Let us know how it turns out!
Can’t wait to try this one! I increased the recipe 50% so I could just use the full box of shells (20 vs 12 per tray) and bumped up the ingredients accordingly. Instead of using the second pesto over the top, I used 1/2 jar of alfredo sauce as I know that will be more appealing to my kids. Looked great going into the pan and I think it will be even better coming out!
This is a go to recipe for me. I took some to work yesterday and my boss walked from his office to the break room and asked if it was my lunch that smelled so good.
That’s great!! Make him some next time – might get you a promotion!! Ha!