---
title: Stuffed Chicken Enchilada Shells
date: 2010-09-21T20:46:31Z
modified: 2010-09-21T20:46:31Z
permalink: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/stuffed-chicken-enchilada-shells/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 1588
categories:
  - Allergen-Free Recipes
  - Food Sensitivities
  - Kids
  - Recipes
  - Recommended Products
tags:
  - easy chicken dinner recipe
  - enchilada sauce
  - gluten-free pasta dinner
  - goat cheese
  - recipe for leftovers
  - Tinkyada Rice Pasta
  - toaster oven cooking
author: Elizabeth
---

Faced with the remnants from a pair of delicious roasted chickens recently, I decided to create an Italian-Mexican fusion meal with pasta shells, goat cheese, and that secret ingredient: enchilada sauce.[![](http://elizabethyarnell.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/StuffedEnchiladaShells-300x225.jpg "Stuffed Enchilada Shells")

](http://elizabethyarnell.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/StuffedEnchiladaShells.jpg)

We lo-o-ove enchilada sauce!

It was surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, tasty and my children have clamored for it several times since.

I had been so excited to find these [Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta Grand Shells](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK7PP8?tag=lizoneandmore-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000FK7PP8&adid=1CKZBP8XRG4BGP2A46P2 "Tinkyada rice pasta") recently, although you can certainly use regular wheat pasta shells. For this dish the important factor is the shape of the shells, what the Italians call _conchiglioni_, or large conch shells.[![](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/615YVME7KFL._SL500_AA300_PIbundle-12,TopRight,0,0_AA300_SH20_.jpg "Tinkyada rice pasta shells")

](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK7PP8?tag=lizoneandmore-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000FK7PP8&adid=1CKZBP8XRG4BGP2A46P2)

When I was a senior in college, one of my friends used to whip together huge Friday night pasta meals for a packed house of hungry kids. She and I actually both lived in Italy during the same time period but really became friends after we returned and would hang out speaking Italian and drinking lots of Chianti.

![](http://www.pasta-recipes-made-easy.com/images/different_types_of_pasta_conchiglie.jpg "conchiglie pasta")

One Friday night I remember she mixed together a big bowl of ricotta cheese, mozzarella, garlic, oregano, and who knows what else, and proceeded to direct a team of us toward stuffing it into oversize cooked pasta shells. The stuffed shells then lined a baking pan before being drenched with marinara sauce and topped with more shredded mozzarella. It seemed like a feast.

[![](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415FfssFelL._SL500_AA300_PIbundle-2,TopRight,0,0_AA300_SH20_.jpg "enchilada sauce")

](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TQU3OK?tag=lizoneandmore-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B003TQU3OK&adid=1CVB38J0DHG28B62B6WA)So I had purchased these shells with something similar in mind only I didn’t know what yet. The leftover chicken meat and shreds from the carcass seemed like a good fit. From a run to the farmer’s market I added corn sliced off the cob (4 ears) and a large green chile (which I roasted over the stove burner, then peeled and seeded).

From the fridge I pulled out leftovers of 8 stalks of steamed asparagus and cut them into 1″ lengths. To finish off the stuffing I shredded two kinds of goat cheese: cheddar and mozzarella. Of course, you can easily use cheeses made from cow’s milk — we find goat’s milk cheeses easier to digest in our house and love the harder styles that taste just like recognizable flavors like cheddar, Monterey jack, and mozzarella.[![](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DN791PRfL._SL500_AA300_.jpg "goat cheese mozzarella")

](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VC6C4A?tag=lizoneandmore-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000VC6C4A&adid=07QK0PFCKE77F4WJJWEQ)

I put all of this into a big bowl and mixed it together.

Meanwhile, I had been boiling the shells in salted water. When they were on the firmer side of tender, I drained and rinsed them well.

Into a glass baking dish, I poured a few tablespoons of prepared enchilada sauce and painted it across the base and up the sides. I used another tablespoon to ladle stuffing into each pasta shell before placing it snugly into the baking dish.

When the layer of shells was complete I poured enough enchilada sauce on top to cover all of the shells, and sprinkled them with more shedded goat cheese. I put the dish into the oven (I actually used a [toaster oven](http://elizabethyarnell.com/effortlesseating/2010/06/too-hot-to-cook-use-a-toaster-oven/ "toaster oven cooking") to cook outside on the porch this hot summer night!) at 325 degrees F until the sauce was bubbling and the cheeses had melted.

You should feel free to stuff shells with whatever you have on hand and make your own Italian-fusion cuisine!