White, saucy Slow Cooker White Chicken Lasagna is made with ricotta, parmesan and cream cheese! Set it and forget it in your crockpot for an easy, family-friendly meal even your picky little eaters will love.
For more pasta dishes you can make in the slow cooker, try my Slow Cooker Ravioli Lasagna (a personal favorite!!), Slow Cooker Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs, and Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup. If you’re looking for a more traditional (but totally exceptional) version, my Best Easy Lasagna will knock your socks off.
Here’s Why We Love It
Slow cooker — We cannot sing the praises of the slow cooker enough over here. Soup? Of course. Taco meat? Yes. Chili? Duh! Lasagna? Yeah, believe it or not, we can also make slow cooker pasta! You may be skeptical but trust me it’s totally worth it!
White sauce — I’ve mentioned before that I am not a big red sauce person, but I LOVE LOVE a white pasta sauce, and that holds especially true for lasagna. Any favorite jar of your favorite storebought white pasta sauce will work great here, or if you’re feeling extra you can whip up a quick batch of my go-to brown butter alfredo sauce in less than 10 minutes!
Chicken — The best part about making this slow cooker lasagna is that you use pre-cooked diced or shredded chicken. (Pro tip: Rotisserie chicken works perfectly in this dish!)
Great for busy days — Slow cookers are great for busy days, I think we can all agree on that. But this crockpot lasagna is especially great to me because I can be gone for the afternoon and this can be cooking and not only do I have dinner ready for me when I walk in the door but I have a yummy, comforting, delicious, filling dinner ready that also happens to make the house smell SOOOO good. That’s a big bonus for me!
Ingredients
Diced or shredded cooked chicken — Often times you put raw chicken in the slow cooker to cook all day, but in the case of this dish, you want to use cooked chicken. The noodles will cook before the chicken and if you tried this with raw chicken it would not get cooked through.
Alfredo sauce — You can use homemade aflredo sauce or purchase store-bought.
Lasagna noodles — I use the regular, raw lasagna noodles in this dish, not the bake-in-the oven kind. I can’t vouch whether or not those ready-bake ones work well but if they do let me know!
Ricotta cheese — You can use either whole or part skim ricotta. Ricotta is a key ingredient in keeping lasagna cheesy, creamy, and moist.
Cream cheese — I also add cream cheese to this dish to take up the creaminess a bit and it helps the ricotta stand up to slow cooking a little bit better.
How You Make It
- First, stir together the diced or shredded chicken with the ricotta cheese, the cream cheese, ½ a cup of parmesan cheese, and the Italian seasoning.
- Next, lightly grease the slow cooker crock, and then spread a 1/2 cup of pre-prepared or homemade alfredo sauce in the bottom.
- Top the sauce with three lasagna noodles (break as needed to fit into the slow cooker) and then follow the lasagna noodles with half of the chicken mixture, then layer the top of the chicken with three more lasagna noodles.
- Pour just half of the remaining sauce over the chicken mixture and top with three more noodles (breaking as needed), then add the remaining chicken mixture, and the remaining noodles.
- Lastly, spread what remains of the sauce over the noodles and sprinkle the last of the parmesan cheese over the top.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and set it to cook on low for 4 hours. When it’s done cooking, I like to sprinkle it with chopped parsley just before serving.
FAQS
Ricotta is a tried-and-true lasagna cheese favorite. Whole milk or part skim, ricotta sets the gold standard for lasagna cheese. However, in this recipe you’ll notice I also use cream cheese and some parmesan as well.
I’ve known cooks who like to add mascarpone to their ricotta and even those who swear that a great substitute for ricotta is cottage cheese. Now, I’ve only tried that once, back in my early cooking days, only I used BOTH ricotta and cottage cheese. Do NOT recommend.
All that is to say, I recommend ricotta as your go-to cheese and then mix it or layer it with other creamy white cheeses as you like.
Slow cookers are great, until you have to clean them up. To prevent too much stuck-on food, I always prepare my slow cooker’s crock with a spray of cooking spray on all sides and the bottom.
However, no matter how much you prep your slow cooker, you will have to clean some stuck-on cheese or noodles or sauce off of the inside of it. I always soak the crock in the sink for a few hours or overnight to help food come off more easily.
If you’ve found after soaking and scrubbing with dish soap and a brush or a non-abrasive scrubber, that it still needs something extra, then you can try making a paste with baking soda and dish soap. You make the paste, apply it to the stuck-on food in the crock, and let it sit for about an hour before trying to scrub again.
I’ve also had some luck washing it in the dishwasher, but I still recommend that overnight soak before adding it with the rest of your dishes.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- For another layer of flavor, you can try mixing in a tablespoon or two of pesto into the cheese mixture. (Here’s my favorite homemade pesto sauce right here!)
- This lasagna will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days and reheats well in the microwave.
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Did you make this recipe? FANTASTIC. Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo on social – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Slow Cooker White Chicken Lasagna
Ingredients
- 2 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
- 2 ½ cups alfredo sauce - homemade or storebought
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese - (whole or part skim)
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese - divided
Instructions
- Stir together chicken, ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning.
- Lightly grease your slow cooker. Spread 1/2 cup alfredo sauce in the bottom. Top with three lasagna noodles (break as needed to fit into the slow cooker). Spread half of chicken mixture over the noodles, then layer with three more lasagna noodles.
- Pour half of the remaining sauce over the chicken mixture. Top with three more noodles (breaking as needed), then remaining chicken mixture, and remaining noodles.
- Spread remaining sauce over the noodles and sprinkle with the last of the parmesan cheese.
- Cover and cook on low 4 hours. Sprinkle with chopped parsley if desired just before serving.
your recipe doesn’t specify “cooked” noodles. The recipe says to break the noodles as needed, which seems to mean uncooked. But there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid for uncooked. I’m assuming you used cooked noodles.
No, you put them in uncooked. Recipe works as written 🙂
Never mind, sorry!
I see where that question has been asked and answered!
No need to be sorry 🙂 Glad you were able to find answers to your questions
Do you cook the lasagna noodles first?
Or buy the ones that are quick boiled?
Do you precooked the lasagna noodles?
No, you put them in uncooked