The other night I decided to make Chicken Divan - a dish I did not grow up with and have never made before. The request came from my husband. There were a couple of obstacles to overcome: 1) My husband has an absolute FEAR of mayonnaise and most of the recipes I googled have mayo in them and 2) He is a man who likes lots of flavor. When I think Chicken Divan, I think sort of mild, boring, creamy - all things that he is not a fan of, making me wonder why he wanted this? Sometimes he gets a little reminiscent of his mom's cooking, though, and I can understand that. Don't we all? I decided to look through a bunch of recipes, but ultimately create my own. It came out truly awesome, if I do say so myself, and my husband never even got up once to grab the pepper, Tabasco sauce, or some other odd spice out of the cupboard which usually signals bored taste-buds. Sadly neither of our kids would touch it. The three-year-old does not do sauces of any kind. To warn you, this is not your everyday, low-fat dinner. Use this for those nights when it is cold and you need comfort food.
Danielle's Delightful Divan
1 lb chicken breast - boiled in salty water and diced
1 extra-large bunch of broccoli chopped and blanched
2 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbls butter
3 Tbls flour
1 cup milk (preferably with some fat in it)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp celery salt
pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken and broccoli in casserole dish, set aside.
In a saucepan, melt butter, add garlic and saute until tender - about one minute. Add flour and whisk vigorously to create a roux. When butter/flour mixture is smooth and boiling, add milk, whisk until smooth. Bring to boil and thicken. Remove from heat. Add soup, sour cream, parmesan cheese and salt, stir until well blended and smooth. Add pepper to taste (add more salt if necessary too). Pour evenly over chicken/broccoli, stir a little to coat well. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes or until bubbly. Turn on broiler and broil for about three minutes until the cheese begins to brown and bubble. Remove from oven, let stand for at least 5 minutes. Makes four generous adult servings.
Oooooo. That sounds and looks so good!
ReplyDeletehere's a comment for ya: "YUM". I usually add lemon juice to mine. I like your celery salt addition.
ReplyDeleteYou know I'm here! Keep it up :)
ReplyDeleteLooks yummy. I always love to read about your cooking. Gives me something to aspire to :)
ReplyDeleteI read it faithfully and love your recipes. The Chicken Divan recipe is very similar to a recipe we call muscle casserole. When Chris was little he loved brocoli because we told him it would help him get strong muscles. You can serve it over rice, like you did or just stir in the cooked rice and then bake it. It also has about a teaspoon of curry in it. I have also put it in a pie pan (with the cooked rice mixxed in) cover it with cheese then a pie crust. We call that one Muscle pie. He has loved it since he was little. I guess it worked because he has pretty big muscles!
ReplyDeleteLisa - I noticed a lot of divan recipes had curry in it. For some reason that just didn't sound good to me, so I went for celery salt instead...
ReplyDeleteI read your blog!
ReplyDeleteDanielle I LOVE reading your blog! I hope you continue to do it!
ReplyDeletekaren