Chicken Divan

Everyone’s mom has a go-to “casserole”, at least if you’re from the Midwest they do. Well, my mom’s was Chicken Divan.  Right now you might be thinking of cans of questionable cream-of-something-soup. Well, you would be right. I ‘m normally the one to upgrade things like this, or make my own cream-of-something-soup to replace it; this is one of those recipes (like beef stroganoff) that you just don’t mess with. Well, I mess with it a little, but I swear it’s just a little.

What makes this casserole different than your typical bag of frozen this, can of cream of that, is that it’s made with fresh ingredients. It’s poached chicken breasts, freshly steamed broccoli, and a lightly curried cream sauce. Sounds delicious doesn’t it?

Chicken Divan- from the Kitchen of Sue’s Mom.

Ingredients:

2 medium to large heads of broccoli

4 large chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup (light is fine)

¼ cup mayo (light is fine)

½ cup milk (once again, skim is fine)

1 Tbs fresh lemon juice

½ tsp curry powder

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

½ cup bread crumbs

2 Tbs melted butter

Method:

Start by poaching the chicken. In a large pot of boiling water cook the chicken for about 30 minutes or until completely cooked through. This will largely depend on the size of your chicken breasts, check them by cutting into them with a knife, don’t worry about appearance, they are going into a casserole after all. While the chicken cooks, cut the broccoli into spears.

Steam the broccoli until it is fork tender.

In a 9X13 baking dish, arrange the chicken alternating with spears of broccoli. I place two stems of broccoli, florets facing opposite sides, in between each piece of chicken. In a small bowl whisk together soup, mayo, lemon juice, and curry powder. Pour over chicken and sprinkle with cheese.

In another small bowl pour the melted butter over the bread crumbs and sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

A few notes:
-Cat hasn’t eaten this in years- she won’t eat things with warm mayo. But I think after reading this and seeing the pictures even she may reconsider.

-My slight modification is extra curry. The recipe above reflects the original but when I make mine I use a highly mounded ½ tsp of curry. I love curry, what can I say.

-I always serve this with a side of Uncle Ben’s wild rice. It just goes together perfectly.

-My Mom also used to make an excellent version of this on pizza. That’s right- PIZZA. I may have even liked it better than this. She would use a plain pizza crust (which she of course made from scratch) use the curry sauce as the base, and top it with shredded chicken, broccoli florets, and sprinkle it with shredded cheddar. I think I need to make this soon…

-You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake it. Or you can freeze it before you cook it and let it defrost in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours before you bake it. I’m mentioning this because this is super common of Midwest style casseroles; they are often made ahead of time or given to neighbors and friends in times of need.

-Sue

Shepherd’s Pie

mmmmm, everything in one dish.

Shepherd’s pie is really just pot roast with the mashed potatoes built right in.  Probably the original intent was to use up tough beef and leftover potatoes, but I love meals that take place all in one dish.  This kind of food is also right up Dom’s alley, because it ends what I call “that uncomfortable feeling”.  Dom is one of the few people I know who eats to end the feeling of being hungry.  It’s amazing, coming as I do from a family of people who are talking about dinner while eating breakfast.  Real life example, Dom, my parents and I were driving to the grocery store during a recent trip Dom and I took back home to Michigan, Dom’s mom called him on the phone while we were in the car:

Dom’s mom: So what are you doing?

Dom: Driving to the grocery store with Cat and her parents.

Dom’s mom: Again?!

My parents and I:  Shamed and silent, because it was the third trip to the grocery store in as many days.  Probably we needed more bar cheese and sourdough pretzels.

Anyway.  Shepherd’s pie is really hearty and dense.  I put a bunch of vegetables in mine, including peas.*  Also don’t skip the cremini mushrooms, they add a fantastic darkness to the broth.  Creminis have a lot more flavor than regular white mushrooms.  They’re more mushroomy, I guess, which is to say more like soil and meat.  I also used chunks of stew beef, but you could use ground beef, or no beef at all, if you prefer.

*Yeah, peas.  I put peas in it.  I have a lengthy history of hating peas, dating back to a dish my grandmother used to make called Peas & Peanuts, which was exactly how it sounded, plus mayonnaise.  It is super gross, and my Aunt Carol and I used to hate it together.  I’m not saying I like peas, because I don’t, but they’re good in shepherd’s pie.  Sorry Aunt Car Car.

Shepherd’s Pie

1.5 lb stew beef, I typically cut mine into smaller cubes than come in the package, especially when I’m cooking on a weeknight and want to braise things quicker.  In bite sized pieces, meat can become tender in about an hour rather than the several hours required by a pot roast.

2 large sweet onions, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp thyme

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp allspice

3 tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups red wine

2 cups carrots, chopped

2 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 bag frozen peas

4 baking potatoes, chopped

1 cup milk

salt and pepper, copious amounts

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a large dutch oven on medium heat, cook 2 tsp of butter with the onions and garlic, and salt and pepper, until the veggies are translucent, about 15 minutes or so.  Then put in the thyme, allspice and worcestershire, and let cook for a minute or so.  Next, dump in the beef and let it cook for 10 minutes or so.  Sprinkle the whole mess with the flour and cook for 3 more minutes.  Then, put in the tomato paste, wine and mushrooms and let the whole thing cook for 40-60 more minutes, covered.  This should cook as long as possible, ideally, but not less than 45 minutes or so.  If you’ve just made a snack and can wait a little longer for dinner, I’d say let it simmer for 60-90 minutes.

During that 40 minutes, you can make the mashed potatoes.  I cut mine into bite sized pieces, peel still on, and boil until tender, usually 20 minutes or so.  Then drain them, mix in the milk, salt and pepper, and the rest of the butter and mash.  Then set aside until ready to use.

After 40 minutes or so of cooking the meat/wine mixture, mix in the carrots and let cook for another 5-10 minutes.  After that, mix in the peas.  Then pour the whole thing into a 9 x 13 dish, and cover with the mashed potatoes.

Bake for as long or as short as you want.  15-30 minutes will see the potatoes get nice and brown, or 5 minutes is fine too if you’re hungry.

- Cat