Chicken and Mushroom Lasagna with Béchamel
A fresh take on a classic, and utterly delicious for dinner! This chicken-and-mushroom lasagna is one spin on the famous Italian dish. The meat sauce is built from chicken, cremini mushrooms, and sour cream, but everything else stays true to the original — pasta, béchamel, and plenty of gooey cheese!
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make chicken-and-mushroom lasagna with béchamel? Gather the ingredients for the base. I used no-boil lasagna sheets. Any chicken works — white or dark meat; I went with thigh. Any cheese that melts well is fine. In place of sour cream, 20% cream works nicely.
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Step 2:
Start with the béchamel. Gather your ingredients for it, and choose good-quality butter without any milk-fat substitutes.
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Step 3:
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
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Step 4:
Add the flour to the butter and stir well to make a smooth roux.
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Step 5:
Pour the milk into the roux in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Warm milk helps prevent lumps. Keep cooking the sauce, whisking, until it comes to a boil. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. It will thicken gradually. Take the pan off the heat — the béchamel is ready.
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Step 6:
Now make the meat sauce. Rinse the chicken, pat it dry, and cut it into small pieces.
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Step 7:
Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp sponge. Don't rinse them under running water — mushrooms soak up moisture and turn watery. Cut them into small pieces.
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Step 8:
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the vegetable oil. Add the chicken and cook until it just loses its pink color.
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Step 9:
Add the mushrooms and stir. Cook the chicken and mushrooms together for about 5 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.
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Step 10:
Stir in the sour cream. The sauce will be thin at first from the moisture the mushrooms release, then it will start to thicken.
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Step 11:
Once the sauce is thick enough, turn off the heat. The meat sauce is ready.
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Step 12:
Now assemble the lasagna. Grate the cheese on the coarse side of a box grater.
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Step 13:
Take an ovenproof baking dish. Spread a few spoonfuls of béchamel evenly over the bottom.
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Step 14:
Lay the lasagna sheets down, overlapping them. If you're using pasta that needs boiling, cook it first according to the package directions.
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Step 15:
Spread the chicken-and-mushroom sauce over the sheets.
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Step 16:
Sprinkle the meat layer with grated cheese.
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Step 17:
Spread béchamel over the top.
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Step 18:
Keep repeating the layers: lasagna sheets, meat sauce, grated cheese, béchamel, and so on. This amount of ingredients makes three full layers, which you then cover with a final layer of lasagna sheets.
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Step 19:
Spread the remaining béchamel over that top layer.
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Step 20:
And sprinkle with grated cheese.
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Step 21:
Bake the lasagna in an oven preheated to 400°F (200°C) for about 40 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. Adjust the exact time and temperature to your own oven. Take the finished lasagna out and let it cool a little, then cut into portions and serve. Bon appetit!
- I love lasagna and make it often, but this was my first time trying this version — we loved it! It came out even more delicate than the one with Bolognese. I'll be making it often now, chicken and all.
- Instead of fresh mushrooms, you can use frozen or dried (you'll need 5–6 times less dried than fresh). Frozen mushrooms can be thawed any convenient way (say, in the microwave on the right setting — check your appliance's manual) and drained. Or, if a little extra liquid won't hurt the dish, use them straight from frozen. Dried mushrooms should be rinsed well, since they aren't washed before drying, then soaked in cold water for at least 2–3 hours.
- To keep the sour cream from curdling or separating as it cooks, first stir it together with a spoonful of flour in a separate bowl, then add it to the pan. You can swap the sour cream for cream of any fat level — just remember that the fat percentage affects the calorie count of the dish.
- Turn the oven on ahead of time (10–20 minutes before you start) so it reaches the right temperature.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk, 3.5% fat - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk, 3.2% fat - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk, 1.5% fat - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk, 7.5% fat - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk, 2.5% fat - 54 kcal/100g
- Sour cream, 30% fat - 340 kcal/100g
- Sour cream, 25% fat - 284 kcal/100g
- Sour cream, 20% fat - 210 kcal/100g
- Sour cream, 10% fat - 115 kcal/100g
- Sour cream - 210 kcal/100g
- Champignons - 24 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Fortified whole durum wheat flour - 333 kcal/100g
- Whole durum wheat flour, all-purpose - 364 kcal/100g
- Fine wheat flour (krupchatka) - 348 kcal/100g
- Flour - 325 kcal/100g
- Butter, 82% - 734 kcal/100g
- Amateur unsalted butter - 709 kcal/100g
- Unsalted peasant butter - 661 kcal/100g
- Salted peasant butter - 652 kcal/100g
- Clarified butter - 869 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Lasagna sheets - 337 kcal/100g
- Mozzarella - 280 kcal/100g
- Chicken breast (fillet) - 113 kcal/100g
- Nutmeg - 556 kcal/100g
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