Chicken Cannelloni with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

This is part of my cooking for a month series...
I love roasting bell peppers. Roasted red bell pepper sauce is just amazing.... so when I found this recipe on Pinterest I had to try it. This was tasty but I think I can improve on the filling for the cannelloni and you really need two boxes of manicotti/cannelloni instead of one. I ended up making two full pans of this and doubling the sauce.

Chicken Cannelloni with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

1 (8-ounce) package cannelloni or manicotti shells

4 cups finely chopped cooked chicken $

2 (8-ounce) containers chive-and-onion cream cheese

1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

1 cup (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese $

1/2 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

3/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon seasoned pepper

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

Garnish: chopped fresh basil or parsley

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

Stir together chicken and next 6 ingredients.

Cut pasta shells lengthwise through the other side. Spoon about 1/2 cup chicken mixture into each shell, gently pressing cut sides together. Place, cut sides down, in 2 lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dishes. Pour roasted red bell pepper sauce evenly over shells.

Bake, covered, at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish, if desired.

Southern Living
NOVEMBER 2002

 

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

2 (7-ounce) jars roasted red bell peppers, drained

1 (16-ounce) jar creamy Alfredo sauce $

1 (3-ounce) package shredded Parmesan cheese

Process all ingredients in a blender until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Bertolli Five Brothers Creamy Alfredo Sauce.

Southern Living
NOVEMBER 2002

I know these are shells, I ran out of manacotti noodles...

 My notes

I had my reservations about this one...chive and onion sour cream? Really? But I gave it a shot. It turned out well. I followed the recipe for the cannelloni but the roasted red bell pepper sauce I just had to deviate. I don't see the point of buying roasted peppers when I can do it myself. Same thing for the alfredo sauce and the pre-shredded parm. As always I used fresh spinach for the filling and I ground up 2 good sized chicken breasts and cooked with some Italian seasoning.

I can't tell you if it was kid-approved as she got herself excused from the table before she had the opportunity to taste it, but if I had to guess I would say that it would be kid-approved.