Easy Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake

Cheesy and indulgent, this could be made without the chicken as an alternative.

Ingredients

• Pasta of choice - I like Gigli because it holds sauce well

• Chicken thigh or breast, cubed

• 3 tbs butter

• 4 x cloves garlic, minced

• 1 shallot, finely chopped

• Button mushrooms, halved (or sliced if you prefer)

• 2 cups stock

• 2 cups cream

• 2 cups parmesan

• 1 cup other cheese (whatever your preference, I like gruyere or emmenthal)

• 3-4 sage leaves

• Pinch of nutmeg

• Salt/herb salt (see below)

• Black pepper

• Grated cheese to top (any - parmesan/gruyere/emmenthal/blue are all nice)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C

2. Par boil pasta

3. Fry chicken in 1 tbsp butter with garlic, shallots and mushrooms and set aside. When browning chicken I like to cover for some of the cooking time to keep it moist. Not too long though or your butter won't fry off.

4. In the same pan add the rest of the butter, 2 cups stock, 2 cups cream, 2 cups parmesan and stir in

5. Season with bay leaves, nutmeg, herb salt and black pepper and simmer to thicken a little

6. Add your choice of second cheese (I used 1 cup emmenthal) and stir until melted

7. Add chicken and pasta to the cream sauce and mix

8. Place in lasagne dish and cover with a layer of cheese for topping.

9. Bake for 15-20 mins

I use herb salt in this recipe. I use it for all sorts, from Greek salad to potatoes. You can replace with plain salt though.