My Husband's Favorite Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

November is quite the month in my family. My birthday, my Mom's birthday, and my husband's birthday are all within the first two weeks. 

November also sees the end of diet season. 

My husband's birthday was the other day. He's been working late a lot lately so I wanted to make sure that I made it special.

Enter: My Husband's Favorite Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

First, I pretended to leave for work at normal time.

After dropping Doodle off at daycare, I headed over to Starbucks to wake up/drink a skinny peppermint mocha latte, and waited for him to leave for work. Two hours later, he finally left and I headed home to start working on dinner.

Now, don't let that last statement worry you. This mean doesn't take a lot of effort, but I make the chicken used in this recipe in the crockpot so you either need a big chunk of time or leftover chicken in the fridge/freezer.

I should pause here and first, explain that most of my cooking involves the freezer. I'm a big fan of making a giant batch of something (e.g., pie dough, roasted chicken, tomato sauce, etc.) and freezing portions. That's how this recipe first started. I had a TON of left over buffalo chicken and wanted to use it up. We'll make a batch, then use it for pizza, sandwiches, paninis, and lasagna. Since this was a special meal, I started from scratch, but my recommendation is to make buffalo chicken lasagna with buffalo chicken you made previously. p.s. This recipe makes enough chicken for 3-4 lasagnas, so you could make it from scratch and THEN have left overs.

Buffalo Chicken 

one 16-ounce bottle of wing sauce (we used Ken's Brand)

6 large chicken breasts

one large onion (optional, but we like onions) chopped

1. Place chicken in crockpot cover with onions and the entire bottle of hot sauce. I usually add a little water, shake the bottle, and empty again. 
2. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 8-10 hours.
3. Shred chicken. Stirring it with a fork usually does the trick.

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

9 - 12 lasagna noodles

one 15-ounce container of ricotta cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons oregano

1 pound mozzarella (I get the pre-shredded bag)

~ 3 cups of prepared buffalo chicken

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt, pepper, and oregano in a large bowl.
4. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and spoon a little of the sauce from the chicken into the bottom of the pan. 
5. Layer three noodles in the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of the ricotta mixture (probably about 3/4 cup). I don't measure here, just take a small handful and spread the mixture over the noodles. Add a layer of the chicken. I don't add, like, a solid layer of chicken, since it's shredded, I more sprinkle and even layer. Top with a large handful of mozzarella.
6. Repeat layering until you run out of one of the layers (or the pan). I usually run out of pan space after three layers.
7. Top with mozzarella and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top (if you'd like - it gives the top a nice crust)
8. Cover with foil and bake until hot and bubble (usually about 40 minutes). Uncover and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, to give it a crusty top.  
9. Serve to a hungry, tired, appreciative husband on his birthday. 

Because I love him so much, I also made him an Oreo ice cream cake with homemade "crunchies" and chocolate frosting, but that will have to be another post.