Chicken Lasagna

I had some cut up chicken breast, which was left over from a fondue, that I decided I should use to try something new. I had Wil and Luc for dinner, and a friend came over, too. I have another friend, who makes a chicken lasagna, which is delicious, so I thought I would try to make one. I looked on line for recipes, and found many, but did not see a combination that I wanted to make. I combined some ingredients from about 5 different recipes, to make something I thought would taste good. Luc told me it passed his taste test, and my friend, Kellie, said it was "Yummy". So here it is. -sorry I didn't take a picture before it was all gone.

What you need: 5-6 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces, some margarine or oil to cook it in, 1-3 cloves crushed garlic,  2 stalks of celery - chopped into small bits, 1/2 a large onion - chopped fairly fine, salt, pepper, 9 cooked lasagna noodles, a large batch of white sauce, or cheese sauce, and 2 cups of grated Mozzarella cheese. (you can use a commercially prepared sauce, such as Knorr Creamy Garlic or Alfredo, or jars of white pasta sauce. You need about 3 - 4 cups of sauce. 
Pre-heat the oven to 350*F
What you do: First put on a large pot of  water, on high heat, to cook the lasagna noodles. Then  heat oil or margarine in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook on high to brown the pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and add chopped celery, onion, and garlic. (If you wish you could add some sliced mushrooms, but I can't eat those.) Add half a cup of water to the pan, then cover and let simmer. Add noodles to the water when it begins to boil. Cook about 9 minutes. Meanwhile, cook your sauce.

To make your sauce - 3 cups milk, 1/2 cup flour, 4 tbs butter or margarine, 1 tsp each of onion powder and garlic powder, 1/2 cup finely grated cheese, salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Add the flour, and use a whisk to mix together. Stir in the milk, then microwave on high heat about 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Remove the bowl from the oven, and add all the spices. Return to oven and cook on high for another 5 minutes or so, stirring every minute, or until the sauce is thickened, and smooth. Add the cheese, stirring well, and cook one more minute. An option for your sauce, is to replace 1/2 cup milk with a nice white wine. Some of the other recipes I saw on line used canned soup - either cream of chicken, cream of celery, or cream of mushroom in the sauce. You can use anything that you think will make a smooth sauce which has a good taste.

Assemble the lasagna by putting about one third of the sauce into your lasagna pan. Lay 3 noodles on top of sauce. Add half of the chicken and vegetable mix. Add 3 noodles, then 1/3 of the sauce, the rest of the chicken mix, the last 3 noodles, and the remaining sauce. Add all the grated cheese on top. Put into the oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with a Caesar salad, or  tossed or tomato salad. This should make 6 servings. If you have Luc over, it will feed 4 people.

As always - enjoy.