Broccoli-Chicken Casserole Served Three Ways

I was indulging in one of my favorite pastimes the other day, channel surfing food programs, when Chopped came on.  Just so you know, I wasn't always a Chopped fan.  It's not that it took a while for me to appreciate the difficulty in cooking under pressure with weird ingredients, it's just that Diner's Drive-in's and Dive's always took precedent.  Let's face it, greasy diners serving brisket and juicy burgers versus watching the contestant's expression of horror when they open up their baskets and find Mashed Potato Candy?  For what it's worth, burgers ALWAYS takes precedent, no matter what.  But I did come to appreciate the absurdity and hilarity (dare I say skill) in preparing a dessert with peanut brittle, marsala wine, wonton wrappers, and durian.  Durian?  Ever get a whiff of that?  Or what about an appetizer with canned haggis, smoked gouda, celery, and prunes.  Canned haggis?  How rude!!  No one cooks with canned haggis when the real stuff is available.

Recently, on one particular episode, the entree basket contained chicken breast, blue corn tortillas, Tuscan kale, and sea urchin.  Not too crazy and I was curious about the blue corn tortillas.  You all know about my fascination with Mexican food.  And so I watched as two of the chefs prepared blue corn tortilla crusted chicken breast.  I thought if two of the three chefs were using the ingredients for the same thing, there must be something to it.

First they baked the tortillas to harden them.  Then they crushed them into Panko sized crumbs. The chicken breasts were then coated with a seasoned flour mix followed by an egg wash and then coated with the blue corn tortilla crumbs.  Looked terrific.  So I thought I'd try it.

And it was a disaster.  Even my wife, who eats EVERYTHING I cook told me, "No thanks" when I suggested we heat up the blue chicken leftovers the next day.  I realized right then and there that I wasn't going to blog THAT dish.  Regardless of what some think, I am a bit discerning when it comes to blogging for you!!

Anyway, now what to do with the four leftover blue chicken breasts.  To be honest, I didn't even want to eat them. So they just sat in the refrigerator.

Until tonight...

By now you all should know about my wife's insistence on me using organic, free range, and humanely treated animals when I cook.  What I haven't mentioned is my kids' insistence on eating healthy.  When we are all together, ice cream is rarely on the dessert menu. It's usually non-fat frozen yogurt which to be fair, can be very tasty.  And to their credit, they don't just talk the talk - they walk the walk as well by doing bikram yoga, daily gym work outs, marathon running, rock climbing, etc.   I can sometimes get my son to eat hot dogs with me at baseball games.  And they'll all spare me no expense when ordering the most expensive steak at a fancy restaurant.  But for the most part, everyone in my family (except me) enjoys a healthy active lifestyle.  Check out step-daughter #2's blog for more info:  http://livingforit.blogspot.com.

So what to cook tonight...

I scour the refrigerator and see the aforementioned chicken. But aha! I also see broccoli, onions, mushrooms, yogurt, cheese...I got it!!  I'll cook a broccoli-chicken casserole and make it "almost healthy".   The "almost" comes into play with the, yes, you guessed it, cheese.  I love cheese.   My sister-in-law once told my wife that you can smother ANYTHING (including dog poop) with cheese and it will taste good.  I have two large golden retrievers and considering the size of their poops, I doubt any amount of cheese would help that stench.  But there is a lot of truth in cheese making food taste great.

So, broccoli-chicken casserole it is!!  I'll use yogurt as a filling.  That'll be the "healthy" part. I will also use cheese which will downgrade the casserole to "almost-healthy" but it should kick up the taste a notch or two. On the way, I'll also discuss an intermediate version, "mostly-healthy". There will be something for everyone today.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 cups cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
• 16-oz broccoli florets (pre-packaed is ok, frozen is not)
• 1 6-oz container Greek non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• Up to 1 cup shredded cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup Panko crumbs (optional)

This is a really simple dish to make. You can, if you choose, make it even easier to prepare by using pre-packaged sliced mushrooms and broccoli florets. That would be the "lazy" person's version. Or you can buy all fresh veggies and prep them yourself. I mentioned there are three versions of this casserole; healthy, mostly-healthy, and almost healthy. You can make the casserole   "healthy" by simply omitting the cheese. It can be made "mostly-healthy" by using 1/4 cup of cheese inside the casserole. Lastly, you can make it "almost-healthy" by using the cheese inside AND on top as a delicious layer of bubbly goodness.  Sorry kids, but you know which direction I'm taking. When dining at chez Mark, you will always get the "almost healthy" version of everything including broccoli-chicken casserole. 

And away we go....

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a 2-qt. casserole dish - you can use cooking spray ("healthy") or butter ("almost healthy").
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add chopped onions and sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook until tender - about 10 minutes.  I used red onions but feel free to substitute white or sweet.

• Add 3 tbs of flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes to incorporate the flour into the veggies.

• Stir in milk, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly.

• Add the chicken to the mixture and stir for 2 minutes.

• Add the broccoli to the mixture and fold in.

• Lower the heat to medium.
• Add yogurt and mayonnaise to the mixture and stir gently in order to maintain consistency and wholeness of broccoli florets and chicken chunks.

• Adjust seasoning at this point by tasting and adding more salt and/or pepper.  Obviously you can add other seasonings as well such as onion powder or garlic powder.
• If you are preparing "healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then transfer the mixture to a greased 2-qt casserole.  If you are preparing "mostly-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir until the cheese is incorporated before transferring to the casserole dish.  If you are preparing "almost-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir to incorporate before transferring to the casserole dish.   Once in the casserole dish, sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of cheese on top ("almost-healthy") followed by the Panko crumbs.  Here's my "almost-healthy" casserole.

• Now place in oven and cook until bubbly - 25 - 40 minutes depending on whether you are "healthy" or "mostly-healthy" or "almost-healthy".

I like to garnish my servings with salsa and/or Sriracha sauce.  Just seems to add that right amount of tanginess and heat that I like.  Your mileage may vary!

ENJOY!