Chicken Divine

You’ve probably heard of a dish called chicken divan.  Unfortunately, like so many other casserole type dishes, it is almost inevitably made with canned, condensed, cream of crap soup.  Why?  Let me show you how easy it is to make a fabulous version, with no scary, jiggly, canned stuff. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 head of broccoli
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• ¼ cup green onion
• 1 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 15 crackers
• 1 ½ teaspoons poppy seeds

First up, you need to cut the broccoli into florets.  Although I’m not using the stem in this dish, if your broccoli has a long stem on it like mine did, don’t waste it.  Clean it up, peeling off any rough or fibrous bits from the outside, then cut it into chunks.  Drop them into a freezer bag, and freeze them to use later for soup.

Then just cut the top of the broccoli into roughly bite size pieces. 

Dice your chicken breasts.  Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to a pan over medium heat and add the chicken.  Sprinkle it with the salt and pepper. 

Cook briefly on all sides. 

Then put a lid on and allow it to continue to cook for 7 minutes, moving it about once or twice so it doesn't burn. 

Remove the cooked chicken and pour in 1 ½ cups chicken stock. 

Add the broccoli and cover it, allowing it to cook for 5 minutes. 

While you’re waiting for things to cook, go ahead and chop your green onions. 

I happen to have fresh thyme on hand, so that’s what I used.   If you only have dried, cut it back to ¼ teaspoon or so. 

If you’re using fresh, give it a good rinse, then remove the leaves and chop them. 

When the broccoli has cooked for 5 minutes, it should still be green but starting to soften.  Go ahead and remove it from the pan. 

To the remaining ½ cup chicken stock add 2 Tablespoons flour. 

Stir that together until there are no lumps, and pour it into the pan. 

Stir over medium heat until the mixture becomes nice and thick.

Turn off the heat, then cut the cream cheese into pieces and add them to the pan. 

Stir until the cream cheese is mostly incorporated.  It’s ok if you still have some small lumps. 

Add the green onion and thyme. 

Stir that together and add the chicken and broccoli, along with any liquid from them, back to the pan.     

Gently stir until everything is evenly coated. 

Pour the whole thing into a buttered casserole dish. 

Give the pan a quick wash (or get a clean one out… your choice).  Place your crackers into a plastic bag. 

And crush them until you all of the pieces are fairly little.  I just used my hand. 

Melt 2 Tablespoons butter over medium heat and sprinkle in the poppy seeds. 

Add the cracker crumbs. 

Stir until everything is combined. 

Spread the cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar) over the top of the chicken mixture. 

Then sprinkle on the cracker crumb mixture. 

Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.  It should be nice and bubbly around the edges. 

See?  Delicious, beautiful, and not difficult, even without the cans. 

What recipe that usually calls for canned soup would you like to see upgraded?  

Thai Chicken Sliders

So last week I showed you how to make fabulous slider buns.  This week, a filling that’s worthy of them.  Thai chicken with peanut sauce.  If you’ve ever had chicken satay in a Thai restaurant, the flavor will be very familiar to you.  Not only is it absolutely delicious, but it’s made in the slow cooker, which is becoming my best friend in the summertime.  My a/c has a hard enough time keeping up without my oven adding to the heat. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 onion
• Juice of a lime
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce*
• 1 teaspoon molasses
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 Tablespoons curry powder
• ¼ - ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tablespoon chopped, fresh cilantro 

*Traditionally satay uses fish sauce as well, but hubby is allergic to fish.  If you want to use it, simply replace one of the tablespoons of soy sauce with fish sauce. 

Squeeze your lime juice into a bowl. 

Add the soy sauce

Molasses (no I didn't measure it, but if you don't trust your eyeballing skills, go ahead and do so)

Sesame oil

Sugar

Curry powder (just use whatever your favorite is)

And red pepper flakes.  ¼ teaspoon is pretty mild, so adjust for how spicy you like things. 

Whisk that together. 

Peel your ginger. 

Grate that into your sauce.  I used about half of this piece which gave me probably 2 teaspoons.

Because I was already dirtying my microplane, I used that for my garlic, as well. 

Just grate in 2 cloves, then whisk again and set the sauce aside. 

Into your crock pot go two chicken breasts and a chopped onion.  As you can see, I diced the chicken, but I actually recommend leaving them whole or perhaps cutting them into quarters.  I’ll explain later. 

Pour the sauce over the top and stir until everything is evenly coated. 

Put the lid on and turn on the crock pot.  I cooked mine on high for an hour and low for another 3 ½.  Basically, you want the chicken to be tender enough to do this. 

Here’s what you’ll need for the peanut sauce: 

• ¼ cup peanut butter (use something natural)
• ¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk (I used light)
• 1 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder 

Put the peanut butter and coconut milk into a bowl. 

Stir them together until they’re nice and smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients

And stir them in.

It will probably be a bit thick, so add coconut milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you get something drizzle-able.   

Now remove your chicken and shred it with forks, adding sauce from the crock pot as needed.  This is the reason for leaving the chicken breasts in larger pieces.  My small pieces meant tiny shreds.  Longer shreds would give it a bit more chew.   

Chop your cilantro

And add it to the chicken. 

Pile the chicken onto one of your fabulous homemade buns.

Drizzle on the peanut sauce, and don’t skimp.  It really is the perfect accompaniment. 

Who says sliders have to be regular old hamburgers?

What’s your favorite slider?