Sunday's Supper: Cheesy Chicken Tortellini Bake

Cheesy Chicken Tortellini Bake

Pasta Mixture:
1/2 c. chopped onion
4 tsp olive oil, divided
6 garlic cloves, pressed, divided
1 jar (16 oz) white Alfredo pasta sauce
20 oz pkg cheese tortellini, refrigerated
3 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 c. milk
1 c. water
1 c. frozen peas
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbs snipped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil leaves

Crumb Topping:
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs. butter, melted
1 c. fresh bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
First take 2 tsp. olive oil, heat in frying pan. Add 3 cloves pressed garlic.
Add cut up chicken. Cook until no longer pink.
Remove from heat, set aside.

In a 4 quart pot or larger heat remaining oil. Add onions and remaining garlic cloves, pressed. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes making the onions tender.

Stir in milk, water, pasta sauce, chicken, tortellini, peas, and black pepper. I used the whole bag of peas because I didn’t know what else I could use them on and didn’t want them to get freezer burn. So I ended up with about 4 cups peas.

Bring to a boil. Add basil, stir.
Remove from heat.

Pour or spoon into a casserole dish. This one is from Corningware. I used to use Pyrex but couldn’t stand cleaning them. This pan has never met a match I couldn’t clean easily. LOL!

In your food processor make your bread crumbs. I make the whole loaf at once and put the rest in my freezer. They’ll last for a month and since I get a special bread that I won’t use for anything else I might as well.

Combine with butter and cheese. These look so good this way that I doubled it. Hubby later told me I should have tripled them. Recipe ingredients about are still single serving.