Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

I know I am one of those people always looking for new and easy meals to throw together for my family. I have a pretty large family ( there's 6 of us) to feed so whatever I fix has to be able to feed a small army. I kept seeing this idea for these white lasagnas pop up on my Facebook news feed and on Pinterest and so I finally had to try it myself. Now being the adventurous ( or forgetful however you want to put it) person I am I decided to wing it and came up with a recipe that my family absolutely loves! I've made it several times and have even made it for a small dinner party I threw. There has never been a shortage of food with this and everyone goes home feeling happy and very VERY full after.

What you'll need:

3 boneless skinless chicken breast Diced into even pieces
1 packet Italian Seasoning
1 packet of ranch or approximately 1/4 cup ranch dressing
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika 
1 Medium onion- diced
1 can mushrooms ( this is optional)
1 head ( or 1 bag like use) broccoli
1 pound chopped bacon
2 jars Alfredo sauce
1 16 oz bag mozzarella cheese- shredded
1 16 oz bag Parmesan cheese- shredded
1 pack provolone cheese- sliced
1 box lasagna noodles
5-6 cloves of garlic- finely chopped

Salt and pepper

First things first... chop up everything! Well almost everything. Go ahead and chop up the onion, bacon, chicken, and garlic. I like to do all of this at the beginning so I don't have to worry about trying to do it while I'm cooking.

Next, go ahead and throw that chopped bacon in a large pan and get that cooking.  Make sure to stir it pretty frequently so it doesn't burn. I like to let it cook for a couple of minutes on medium-high heat until it looks like it's all brown but not crispy.

Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the pan and drain off a little of the greese but make sure to leave some of it in the pan for cooking the rest of the stuff. The name of the game is flavor and using the grease that you've gotten from the bacon and cooking everything else in it will do nothing but add extra flavor to your food.

While your  bacon is cooking god ahead and season your chicken. I add all of the seasoning to the chicken (garlic,garlic salt, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, paprika, and ranch dressing) and allow it to sit in the fridge for the next couple of minutes.

Go ahead and throw the onions in the pot and allow those to cook until translucent. Just before you're ready to pull those off of the heat, add in the garlic and a little salt and pepper. Cook everything for about another minute or 2 until the garlic and onions are cooked but make sure not to burn the garlic.

Remove the garlic and onions from the pan and add a bit more of the greese that you emptied off before because chances are... the pan is starting to get a little dry by now. Once you've added a bit more grease and it's heated up a bit, add the chicken and all of the seasoning into the pan. You'll want to cook the chicken all the way through making sure to give it a quick stir every couple of minutes so nothing burns.

This is normally the time that I heat the water in another big pot to boil the Lasagna noodles. So over medium-high heat bring the water to a nice rolling boil. Once the water is boiling add in a good helping of salt and a bit of oil to the water ( again flavor) and wait for the water to come back to a boil. Once we are boiling again, add the pasta and allow to cook until tender. This can take a couple of minutes so be patient and tend to your chicken. Once the noodle are cooked, drain the water and allow to cool for a few minutes. Trust me... letting everything cool is essential to maintaining your identity because burning your finger prints off is a real possibility.

Also you'll want to go ahead and cook your broccoli at this point as well. If you're using one of the steamer packs it'll normally take about 5-6 minutes for that to heat through.

After you've managed to get everything cook, and allowed it to cool to a non-burning point, you'll begin the fun part... assembly! This part is pretty easy and can actually be kind of fun to have the kids help with too.

Go ahead and preheat your oven at this point, to 350

You'll want to first prep a 9x13 inch pan by spraying it with a little non-stick spray. It doesn't matter the kind, just whatever you have and like to use. I then place a thin layer of Alfredo sauce on the bottom of the pan for the noodles to stick to. Once that's all finished start the layering.

Layer 1-
* noodles- Place enough noodles on the bottom layer to completely cover the bottom of the pan. You may end up having to cut a couple but that's ok.
*Chicken- I sprinkle on about half of the chicken here and leave the other half for the next layer
* mushroom- sprinkle mushrooms all over
* Bacon- sprinkle on about half of the bacon throughout the layer.
*Broccoli- Sprinkle half of the broccoli throughout the layer.
*Onion mix- Add about half of the onion and garlic mixture over this.
*Cheese- Take the shredded mozzarella and the Parmesan and sprinkle about half of each over the layer.
*Alfredo sauce- top the layer with a thin layer of alfredo sauce.

Layer2-
Repeat the above steps.

Layer 3-
Top off the last 2 layers with another layer of noodle. At this point things are looking kind of dicey on weather or not it's all going to fit. I normally kind of push everything down a little bit at this point. Top the noodle with more Alfredo sauce and then cover that with the provolone cheese sliced. I will lay down 4-6 whole circles on top of the Lasagna and then split 2-3 in half to kind of fill in the blank spaces. Then I sprinkle on any of the remaining shredded cheese.

Once you built your lasagna, it's time to pop it in the oven to cook all of that yummy cheese, Sorry kids, no more helping! This thing is heavy, so be sure to support it with two hands going in and out of the over or else you will drop it. Trust me...

Cook this beautiful beast of a meal for around 20-30 minutes or until all of the cheese is melted and turned a beautiful brown color on top.

I highly suggest serving this fresh out of the over with a nice side salad or something green so as not to completely hate yourself after indulging in this deliciously rich meal.

Alternatives- Instead of or possible even with the broccoli, I highly recommend using either spinach or Kale in this dish for a bit of extra green goodness.