Oh my gash it’s been yeaarrrssss. Maybe not years, but it definitely feels like it’s been forever since I’ve talked to you! My week and a half of no blogging for our trip to Mexico and our move morphed into two and a half weeks. Yikes. I’ll explain later….but first…
BUFFALO CHICKEN ????. Yes please forever.
I am a tad bit obsessed with buffalo chicken anything…as you can probably tell from this dip…and these bites…and these potato skins. It’s a problem. My name is Annie and I am overly obsessed with buffalo chicken dip.
You know what else I love? Any type of casserole ever. Including lasagna. It is so satisfying to layer/pile all this stuff into a baking dish, throw it into the oven, go clean your kitchen and get everything else ready, and then ding! Your awesome, cozy, comforting casserole is ready to come out of the oven and dinner is BOSS.
A few weeks ago, Personal Creations emailed me and wanted to ship me one of their beautiful lasagna baking dishes in exchange for a yummy lasagna post. They even personalized it – look!
And I’m kind of super in love with it. It’s heavy stoneware kind of like a Le Creuset pot, and I love that the bottom section isn’t painted – it’s pretty. And it gave me an excuse to post a lasagna recipe.
And gave me an excuse to further feed my buffalo chicken obsession. And football season is approaching…which means I’ll be even more encouraged to eat buffalo chicken themed foods. Beware, people. I’m warning you.
SO – if you (like me) love buffalo chicken dip, this lasagna will literally be perfect for you. It basically tastes like buffalo chicken dip in pasta form. It’s cheesy, melty, gooey, hearty, and – most importantly – buffalo-y (needs to be a word). This definitely isn’t your traditional lasagna. For obvious reasons, the flavors are completely different, but it is also less saucy and it stays together better.
With regular lasagna, you have to wait a while before slicing into it or everything will just fall apart on your plate. But I mean, let’s be real…who ever waits before slicing their lasagna? I sit there and drool over it for about 2 minutes before I’m like WHATEVS, I’m doin’ it. It’ll taste the same regardless.
The cool thing about this buffalo chicken lasagna, however, is that there’s barely any wait time before slicing into that bad boy. You will want to wait a little bit so that you don’t burn your tongue off, but no more than five to ten minutes until you can stuff your face with buffalo chicken goodness.
So on a non buffalo chicken related note – these past few weeks have been the craziest ever, and I just haven’t had one spare moment to post a recipe. I did miss you all, but my goodness.
We got back from Cancun on July 29th (SUPA late at night), and woke up the next morning to immediately continue our house packing extravaganza. And man oh man, moving is a lot of work. For some reason it felt like a billion times more work this time than it has in the past. I have a theory that it’s because we moved locally rather than state to state. When you move from state to state, you completely finish one house, drive for a few days, and then focus all your attention on the new house. Dealing with both houses at the same time was craaayyyyy. The crayest cray.
Anyway, we got all moved in (FINALLY), and the same day that we finished unpacking, my best friend flew in from North Carolina to visit. She left yesterday, and Seth and I got ourselves all cleaned up and organized. And by cleaned up and organized I mean we mowed the lawn for five hours. No…I’m not exaggerating. They didn’t mow the lawn before we moved in, so the grass was super long, and it was wet from days of rain.
You know what is the most intense full body work out ever? MOWING THE LAWN. I did the front yard and Seth did the back. Death. If anyone wants to buy us a riding lawn mower, we would be open to that option. Jussttttt kidddinnngggggg…but really.
Can you tell by my random and jumpy rambling that my mind still isn’t totally back to normal after the craziness that has been these last few weeks? There is just so much that has happened. I’ll summarize for you.
Our Cancun trip: no one could pronounce Seth’s name (they said Set – no “th” sound happenin’ AT all), we rode dolphins (yas), met some really cool people, lay on the beach reading, went to some awesome shows – one of which Seth was pulled up on stage and messed with (highlight) – swam in our room’s private pool (HIGHLIGHT), and ate the MOST FOOD EVER. Like…seriously…I wanted to eat nothing but one kale leaf for every meal the entire week we got home.
But then I remembered that I really like food, so that didn’t happen.
And since then we have just been unpacking, decorating, and working (school starts next week what happened).
This buffalo chicken lasagna makes all the craziness worth it ?.
PrintBuffalo Chicken Lasagna
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off and shredded (about 3 cups)
- 1 package whole wheat pasta noodles (you will only use 9, but I always cook several extra in case they break)
- 3 8 oz packages reduced fat cream cheese
- 1 packet of powdered ranch dressing mix (each package is 1 oz)
- 1 cup buffalo sauce (we use Frank’s), plus more for topping
- 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3 tablespoons chives, minced
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- Bring a pot of SALTED (it should taste like the ocean) water to a boil in a large pot. When boiling, add your lasagna noodles and cook according to package instructions
- Meanwhile, shred the meat from your rotisserie chicken, and add the meat to a medium bowl
- To the chicken, add 4 oz of cream cheese and your ranch dressing mix. Stir to combine
- In a small pot, add your remaining 2 1/2 packages of cream cheese along with your buffalo sauce
- Let this melt together, stirring often
- When your lasagna noodles are done cooking, strain them using a colander and run cold water over the noodles until they are cool enough to handle
- At this point, I lay the noodles out on a few layers of paper towels for easier assembly, but you can skip this step and keep them in the colander if you want
- To assemble, start with 1/2 cup of buffalo cream cheese sauce spread across the bottom of your lasagna dish
- On top of that, add three noodles (amount may vary depending on your dish)
- On top of your noodles, spread around 1 cup of the ranch chicken
- Next, add 3/4 cups of buffalo cream cheese sauce and spread everything around
- Add 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of this, and sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of chives.
- On top of the cheese, add three more noodles. Then repeat – add another cup of chicken mixture, another 3/4 cup of buffalo cream cheese sauce, another cup of mozzarella, and another tablespoon of chives
- Top this off with three more noodles, all of your remaining chicken, all of your remaining buffalo cream cheese sauce, and 2 cups of mozzarella cheese
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes
- When you remove the lasagna from the oven, let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Top with drizzles of buffalo sauce and your remaining tablespoon of chives
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!
In the mood for more buffalo chicken recipes? Check these out:
Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins with Greek Yogurt Ranch
Can you use the ‘no cook’ lasagna noodles in this recipe?
Good question, Michelle! I would probably stay away from no-cook noodles in this recipe just because those noodles generally require more moisture (like what you would get from a tomato sauce). Since this lasagna doesn’t have quite as much liquid as many others, I’m not sure how well the no-cook noodles would work here.
I kind of thought so. Thank you!
Love everything “buffalo” and can’t wait to try it!
I’m with you, Debbie! Buffalo = love :).
Oh, man! I know a buffalo chicken fanatic who is going to love this! I think I know what to make for his birthday! And I like that you use a rotisserie chicken.
Any buffalo chicken fanatic would be a big fan of this recipe, I think :)! Thanks, Amanda!