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My baked chicken cannelloni is made with cannelloni pasta tubes stuffed with a cheesy ricotta, chicken, and spinach filling, topped with creamy sauce. This is an easy make-ahead dinner that’s family-friendly, customizable, and so tasty!
Cheesy Baked Cannelloni With Chicken
Like my homemade stromboli, baked mostaccioli, and crockpot lasagna, this cheesy chicken-stuffed cannelloni is a classic Italian dish made EASY. Chicken cannelloni is quick and stuffed with a filling of fresh spinach, chicken, and ricotta, all nestled in pasta sauce and topped with a creamy mixture of half-and-half, Parmesan, and Italian seasonings. A side of air fryer garlic bread is perfect for sopping up all that sauce!
The entire recipe takes 45 minutes from start to finish. It’s kid-friendly and makes for some great leftovers.
Reader Review
“This is a delicious recipe!! One of your longer recipes, but absolutely worth a little more effort! I love that all of your recipes allow for changes of supplies on hand, adding veggies, spices, and different proteins!! Thank you 😊” – Lynn Marie
Ingredients You’ll Need
This chicken cannelloni recipe is flexible. I love reading comments where you guys have swapped out the pasta, changed up the ingredients, and adapted it for your families with delicious success!
Here’s what I use. Scroll to the recipe card for the printable details and amounts.
- Cannelloni: These are large pasta tubes made for stuffing and baking. Manicotti shells are a close substitute.
- Olive Oil: Or any other cooking oil.
- Garlic and Onion: Diced yellow onion and minced fresh garlic.
- Chicken: I use shredded chicken for the filling, or about 3 cooked chicken breasts. You can bake the chicken, use the air fryer, or chop up leftover rotisserie chicken. Alternatively, replace the chopped chicken with ¾ to 1 pound of cooked ground chicken.
- Milk: Any kind (whole milk, 2%, etc.).
- Ricotta Cheese: I use part-skim ricotta, a soft Italian cheese you’ll find in the dairy aisle or deli section of most grocery stores.
- Baby Spinach: Fresh or frozen. If you’re using frozen spinach, thaw it and squeeze out any excess moisture to avoid a watery filling.
- Pasta Sauce: Use your favorite pasta sauce, homemade or store-bought.
- Half-and-half: Heavy cream works for an extra-rich cream sauce.
- Parmesan Cheese: I like freshly grated for the best flavor, but pre-grated parmesan is fine.
- Seasonings: I season the creamy sauce with dried basil, oregano, ground nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Substitute the individual herbs with Italian seasoning if needed.
Cannelloni Alternatives
If you can’t find cannelloni tubes, the ricotta and spinach filling is also delicious in stuffed shells or lasagna sheets, but the baking times can vary.
- Jumbo shells. Simply swap cannelloni tubes with jumbo pasta shells and prepare the recipe as directed.
- Lasagna sheets. Another option is to roll the chicken filling inside fresh or pre-boiled lasagna sheets, like lasagna roll-ups. Nestle the roll-ups on top of the red sauce, pour over the white sauce, and bake!
Should I Pre-Cook the Cannelloni Tubes?
It may be the pasta brand I used, but I never par-cooked my cannelloni for this recipe until I switched brands. Some commenters said their tubes needed to be precooked because they remained crunchy after baking. To avoid this, I suggest precooking the cannelloni tubes in boiling water for 5 minutes before filling them with the chicken mixture.
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Chicken Cannelloni
Ingredients
- 12 cannelloni tubes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup part-skim Ricotta cheese
- 8 to 10 ounces baby spinach
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup pasta sauce
- 1½ cups half-and-half
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Par-cook the cannelloni. Cook the cannelloni tubes in boiling water for 5 minutes; rinse and set aside to cool for a few minutes, or just until cool enough to handle.
- Prepare to bake. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- Sauté. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté for 2 minutes; stir in the garlic and chicken, and continue cooking for 4 minutes.
- Make it creamy. Add the milk and let it simmer for 2 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the ricotta cheese until well blended.
- Add the spinach. Add the spinach and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until wilted. Remove from heat and let stand a few minutes, or until cool enough to handle.
- Stuff the cannelloni. Spoon pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish and set aside. Using a spoon, your hands, or a piping bag, stuff the prepared chicken mixture into cannelloni tubes.
- Assemble. Arrange the cannelloni in a single layer on the bottom of the baking dish, over the pasta sauce. Set aside.
- Make the sauce. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, parmesan, basil, oregano, nutmeg, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined. Pour the half-and-half mixture over the cannelloni.
- Bake. Transfer the baking dish to the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the cream is reduced. Remove from the oven and let stand for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens slightly. Spoon the sauce over the cannelloni and serve.
- Finish and serve. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens slightly. Spoon the sauce over the cannelloni and serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Chicken Cannelloni
Stuffed cannelloni are delicious bundles of dinner-joy. Stuffing the pasta tubes takes time, but it’s so easy that you can even prepare this the day before. It’ll be ready for the oven during the week.
- Par-boil the pasta. Cook the cannelloni tubes in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes. Then, rinse the pasta and let it cool enough to handle.
- Make the filling. Meanwhile, sauté the onions in oil, then add the garlic and cooked chicken. After a few minutes, stir in the milk, let that simmer, and add the ricotta and spinach. Cook until the spinach has wilted, then let the filling cool and thicken.
- Assemble. Spread the pasta sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Stuff the cannelloni with the cheesy chicken mixture. You can do this by hand, with a spoon, or by piping (my preferred method).
- Add the white sauce. Nestle the stuffed cannelloni in a single layer over the pasta sauce. Whisk the half-and-half with parmesan, herbs, and seasonings, and pour it over the cannelloni.
- Bake. Bake at 400ºF for 18-20 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Give the cannelloni a few minutes to cool and rest so the sauce can thicken before serving.
Use a Piping Bag to Fill the Cannelloni
I’ve found this is the easiest way to fill cannelloni tubes. Add the chicken mixture to a ziplock bag (or piping bag), snip off the tip, and place the tip inside the open end of the cannelloni. Pipe the filling into the tubes. Works like a charm!
Can I Freeze Cannelloni?
This is a freezer-friendly meal, usually when it’s cooked in a tomato-based sauce. Because this recipe has a cream-based sauce, I usually avoid freezing it, as the sauce can change texture when reheated.
However, if you still want to freeze it, let it cool, wrap it tightly, and freeze it unbaked. Thaw the casserole in the fridge overnight. Before baking, add a splash of liquid, like milk, and bake as directed.
Cannelloni was hard, not cooked. Had to put back in oven, hopefully it will be cooked and tender but takes much more than 20 minutes.
This looks fantastic but I’m confused with the chicken. Do I add raw chicken to the onions and garlic? Or how do you recommend preparing the chicken so it doesn’t get too dry?
3 cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped
The cannelloni tubes are filled with a warm mixture of chicken (use cooked leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken), cheese, and fresh spinach
Absolutely delish!!!! Followed recipe exactly and everyone loved it!!!
Does this freeze well? Want to bring a dish to a friend to cook now or later
Hello, haven’t tried this recipie yet but would love to try it out. Just not clear about the half and half. Could you please explain. Thank you.
HI!
“Half & Half” is half cream, half milk. You can also use light heavy cream or full fat milk. I hope this helps! 🙂
First ever time I had followed a recipe and genuinely loved the outcome first hand! I was a little lazy and used store brought roast chicken but was so tasty and not dry at all! Also used a whole bottle of pasta sauce instead of just the one cup. Highly recommend! I never even bother to write comments but I just had to here as I was so satisfied
Whenever I make a recipe for the first time, I follow the instructions to the letter. Then if any changes are needed, I feel I can add my 2 cents. This was a delicious recipe, but feel there is room for improvement. I found the cannelloni undercooked as another reader mentioned. I recently made the recipe again with the following changes. I precooked the pasta tubes. I shredded the chicken rather than finely chopping it and did not add the chicken to the onion garlic mixture. The chicken has been cooked and with the additional cooking time, it becomes a little dry. Add the chicken in struction #7. In instruction #11 I made a roux and added the half+half along with the seasonings and simmer till slightly thickened. Also add the Parmesan cheese at this point. These simple revisions made this recipe outstanding and company raved about it. This is not a criticism of the owner of this recipe, just my personal taste. I like this site very much. Bob Appetit
Gigi, I agree with you and made some of the same revisions. I used rotisserie chicken sautéing the garlic and onion first and tossing in my shredded chicken the the milk and it did not dry out. I made my sauce like you with a rue and I added the tomato sauce to it (amazing). The noodles should definitely be precooked next time but other than that it tasted great. I would like to see the recipe worded/arranged a little more prep friendly but other wise this was yummy.
I read through the original recipe and made similar changes myself. Just noticed your comment!
A. Didn’t heat the chicken with the onions/garlic. I put the milk in with the garlic/onions for a couple of minutes and then threw spinach in for another minute or so before adding the cooked chicken and Ricotta.
B. I used frozen spinach, and just drained it/squeezed out most of the water before mixing in to the chicken/ricotta mixture.
C. Made a roux to start the white sauce using about 1 tbsp butter and 1-2 tbsp of flour.
D. I placed about 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan before placing the stuffed cannelloni in. I mixed the reserved 1/2 cup of tomato sauce in with the white sauce.
E. Cooked the pasta for 5 minutes before stuffing them.
F. Baked at 400 degrees covered with foil for 30 minutes and then 10 minutes with the foil removed (to brown the top).
Absolutely delicious! This is my first crack at making stuffed pasta, and I doubt I will need to find another recipe to use. Thank you for the lovely recipe inspiration Karen!
That’s great! I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Just tried this recipe exactly as written and while the flavor was delicious. The pasta wasn’t cooked. And the sauce had all dried up. I think if I were to try it again I would either double the white sauce or cover with foil at the beginning of baking to keep more moisture in.
Turned out really good! I used Manicotti shells instead and cooked them first just to be safe. My picky 2 yr old loved it too!
This is a must-make!! A great addition to our dinner rotation!
This is definitely my kind of meal! Love that ricotta!