Blonde Lasagna with Chicken, Cheese and Mushrooms

From “Gourmet Weekday” (Conde Nast, May 2012, $20). If you strip the chicken, chop the skin, grate the cheeses and slice the mushrooms ahead, the dish goes together quickly, says Marlene Parrish. Use dry vermouth if you don’t want to open a bottle of white wine.

• 10 ounces mushrooms (white or brown, wild or mixed), thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, separated
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded to make 2 1/2 cups
• Rotisserie pan juices
• Chicken skin, chopped (optional, but delicious)
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 12 no-boil egg lasagna noodles, preferably Barilla
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with the rack in the middle. Spritz an 8- by 10-inch oblong baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. (A deep 9- by 9-inch pan can work, too.)

Cook mushrooms, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are softened, about 3 minutes. Add wine and simmer briskly for 2 minutes. Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and stir in the chicken, juices and skin (if using). Set aside saucepan; you’ll use it again.

Bring milk to a bare simmer in a medium saucepan. Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter in the 4-quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Add flour and cook the butter-flour mixture, whisking constantly, about 3 minutes. Add hot milk in a fast stream, whisking constantly. Add the thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove from heat, and reserve 1 cup sauce. Stir Parmigiano-Reggiano into remaining sauce in pan, then stir into mushroom filling.

Spread half of reserved plain sauce in baking pan to coat bottom. Add 3 lasagna sheets, overlapping slightly, and 1/3 of mushroom filling, spreading evenly, then sprinkle 1/4 of Gruyere over top. Repeat sheets and filling 2 more times. Top with remaining 3 lasagna sheets and remaining plain sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle top with remaining Gruyere.

Spritz a long sheet of aluminum foil with baking spray oil. Cover the lasagna with the foil, tenting a bit to prevent foil from touching top of lasagna (it wants to stick) but sealing all around the edge, and bake 30 minutes.

Carefully remove foil and bake until cheese topping is golden, about 12 to 15 minutes more. Let lasagna stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

Per serving: 712 calories; 34 g fat (18 g saturated fat; 43 percent calories from fat); 55 g carbohydrates; 137 mg cholesterol; 787 mg sodium; 44 g protein; 2 g fiber.