Pesto Chicken Casserole

I spent a great deal of March looking at different chicken casserole recipes, since I very vaguely put "canned chicken casserole" on the meal plan at the end of the month.  In the end, I didn't use any of them and pulled things out of the pantry and freezer instead.

Pasta boxes are getting smaller, but I found that half of a 12 oz box of bowties made four servings of a reasonable size.  More would have overflowed the dish.  Still, shrinkflation at work.

So after coming up with something that's entirely pantry items, I found it necessary to make a batch of tomato and garlic confit to have on the side.  Yes, it was very necessary.  Unfortunately, I forgot to blog a new hack for peeling garlic that really does cut the effort in half.  I'll do it next time.

6 oz farfalle (bowtie pasta)
1 10oz brick frozen spinach
*1 10 oz can chunk chicken
*1 C pesto
*1/4 C parmesan cheese
*1 C crispy fried onions

1.  Start boiling water to cook the pasta.  While that's going on, microwave the spinach according to package directions.  I did it in the 8x8 casserole I was going to bake this in.  Start preheating the oven to 350º.

2.  When the water is boiling, cook the pasta well.  It might dry out a bit in the oven if it isn't completely cooked.  Drain.

3.  Stir together pasta, spinach, chicken, and pesto.  You could actually stop here and have a perfectly nice meal.  We're going one step further.

4.  Stir in half of the crispy onions and about 3 Tb of the cheese.  Spread in an 8x8 baking dish.  Sprinkle the top with the rest of the onions and last Tb of the cheese.

5.  Bake until heated through and top cheese is melted, about 20 minutes.  Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

Difficulty rating  π