So COVID-19 has made me just a touch stir crazy and my outlets have included cooking, working out, organizing and digital detoxing. Since we all have to eat, cooking has been a main staple because I dive into my pantry and find a few things that I forgot I had or what I didn’t use from a recipe a few weeks back and so cue the main focus of this dish – manicotti shells! This is also one of those “IRL” posts because I have people dying for the recipe and ya girl just didn’t have the time to style/edit these ha!

My husband loves stuffed shells and I haven’t made them in quite some time so cue the prep work and pantry/fridge clean out. If you don’t have shells laying around, this also makes for an excellent topping on pesto pizza and bobby flay’s dough recipe is hands down my favorite.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 box 16 Manicotti or Jumbo Shells
• 1 Jarred Pasta Sauce
• 15oz Part-Skim Ricotta Cheese
• 2 c. Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 c. Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Egg
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 8oz pkg. Mushrooms
• 3 c. Kale
• 1/2 pound Chicken Thighs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and dried garlic and place in oven for 20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 150
3. Shred chicken into tiny pieces
4. Dice mushrooms and kale
5. Mince garlic
6. Cook mushrooms on medium heat until they shrink by half 
7. Add in kale and garlic to wilt and let mixture come to lukewarm/room temp
8. Cook shells according to package and let cool
9. Combine chicken, vegetable mixture, egg, and all cheeses (only 1 cup of mozzarella) and pipe or spoon into shells
10. In a 9×13 glass pan, spoon out about 3/4 cup of sauce to prevent shells from sticking.
11. Line shells tightly together in pan and pour over the rest of sauce and sprinkle with 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
12. Place back in the oven and cook until cheese is melted on top.