Chicken Casserole Recipe

Seeking for a tasty dinner but have no idea what it should be? Let’s make this chicken casserole or should we call it chicken dutch oven?

Casserole is anything that goes into the casserole dish. To make a difference between the variety of meals that can be made with such technique without further obscuring what we are going to eat for dinner; we add the type of meat before the word casserole and thus creating the expectations for dinner.

Chicken, pork, beef all goes well with casserole. If we want to raise the excitement, just add a word of starchy thing to it and everybody will go berserk until the meal is not steaming on their plate. Chicken potato casserole or chicken pasta casserole will instantly set anyone into a good mood but mind mentioning things with low carbs and high nutrition content like Brussels sprouts or cauliflower as that could get us into trouble earlier than we wish for.

Should casseroles have proper name?

Maybe there is a reason why chefs aren’t keen on naming their dishes properly. No one wants to spend the run-up time for dinner with arguing about the health benefits of certain ingredients or preaching about the downside of starch only diet.

There must be few things in the kitchen so loosely regulated as casserole dishes. Not because the food itself can be anything that fits among the wall of the casserole dish but because the casserole dish is a very little defined thing itself.

What is a casserole dish?

Once casserole dishes were just like Dutch ovens. In fact, everywhere else, in the English-speaking world, casserole dishes still look like Dutch ovens.

The word casserole comes from the French “cocotte” which simply means pan. Brits cook their stew in their Dutch oven, looking like casserole pan hence they call every stew casserole or vice-versa.

To add to the confusion, there is another word and dish that comes from France, more precisely form Provence that is in the south of France. There they have a pan that they call “cassa” which also means pan and looks just like the glass or clay casserole pan many of us have been using to prepare casserole dishes.

Dutch oven or casserole then?

This doesn’t mean that we can’t use our Dutch ovens to make casserole or stew, made in Dutch ovens can’t be called casserole because we call things pizza that are made of cauliflower too.

In fact, having such a versatile word in our kitchen dictionary is incredibly useful, especially when we are just messing around without clear directions or any idea if the results are going to be edible at all.

Sure, if we apply granny’s saying that “with good ingredients one can only cook good food” then we can’t miss the mark much but again, granny has only recently been introduced to the world wide web and probably never seen “netmeals”.

How to use a casserole effectively?

It’s always good to have a ready answer for eager ears that are excepting something mouthwatering to every “what’s for dinner honey/mom/dad”. We don’t want to completely ruin their Tuesday by heartlessly rubbing “Brussels sprouts filled cauliflower” into their face, yet we can’t feed them with crepes every day. (Pro tip crepes can be filled with meat and cottage cheese.)

Casserole sounds much more promising to every ear. Especially for those who have experienced the starch filled variety. The bad news is that we can’t pull this trick out of our sleeves many times because once someone falls for it, will ask next time what sort of casserole.

To avoid the degradation of our carefully created trust, we should never lie what’s in our dishes but as sugar filled cereal bars can be called healthy, we can emphasize the feature of our dishes that are most desirable for our target audience. With a bit of luck and a lot of cheese, we may not just get away with the dinner but collect the award of best casserole ever.

Ingredients

2 lb / 1kg Chicken
2 teaspoon / 10g Salt
2 oz / 50g Bacon, guiancale or pancetta (sliced)
2 medium Onions (sliced)
1 stalk Celery (diced)
14oz / 400g Carrot (sliced) (not keto friendly)
2 oz / 50g Leek (sliced)
3 cloves Garlic (crushed)
Optional:
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- Half lemon juice
- Courgette
Pro tip: Cheese makes it taste better
- 3½ oz / 100g Cheese (Gouda, Edam…)
- 3½ oz / 100g Mozzarella
- 7 oz / 200g Sour cream

How to make Chicken casserole

Beginner

Place the chicken meat into a casserole dish then sprinkle half of the salt on top.
Add the rest of the ingredients, except the cheese on top. We can add as much as the casserole dish allows.
Put the lid on then place it into the 390°F / 200°C oven for about 2 hours.
Once it’s done, we can make it taste even better by adding some cheese on top.
Without the lid, place it under the broiler on maximum settings until the cheese gets melted and golden brown spots start to appear for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Advanced

Slice bacon, guianciale or pancetta.
In a cast iron casserole dish aka Dutch oven, on medium to high heat render the fat out for about 10 minutes.
Place the chicken in and sprinkle quarter of the salt on top.
Sear one side until golden brown spots starts to appear for about 5 – 10 minutes.
Turn them over and sear the other side too.
Remove the chicken and loose up and stuck down bits. Leave the bacon and praise any bits of chicken skin that has fallen behind. If we have a big enough pan removing the chicken is not even necessary.
Add the onion, celery and carrots.
Saute on medium to high heat until it starts to caramelize for about 5 – 10 minutes.
Add back the chicken.
Add the leek, garlic and any optional vegetables or herbs. Fill the casserole dish as desired.
Place the lid on then put the whole thing into a 390°F / 200°C oven until the vegetables get the desired texture for 30 – 60 minutes.
Add some cheese and sour sour cream to make it taste better.
Place it under the broiler on maximum settings until the cheese gets melted and golden brown spots start to appear for about 15 minutes.

Overkill

Make a 10% brine and brine the chicken for at least 1 hour before preparations. Add garlic and onion if desired. Check out how to make brine in the Low carb condiment section.
Slice bacon, guanciale, pancetta and on medium to high heat, render the fat out for about 10 minutes.
Add chicken and sear both sides until golden brown spots starts to appear for about 10 – 20 minutes.
Remove the chicken and loose up and stuck down bits then add the onion, celery and carrots. Saute on medium to high heat until it starts to caramelize for about 5 – 10 minutes.
Add back the chicken leek, garlic and any optional vegetables or herbs. Fill the casserole dish as desired.
Place the lid on then put the whole thing into a 390°F / 200°C oven until the vegetables get the desired texture for 30 – 60 minutes.
Add some cheese and sour sour cream then place it under the broiler on maximum settings until the cheese gets melted and golden brown spots start to appear for about 15 minutes.