I decided to try the Chicken, Leek and Mushroom casserole from page 45 of Jan Living. It sounded simple and nice for a cold night. In general, I am not a big casserole fan, but this one sounded ok.

You start by cooking chicken breasts. Then you cook chopped leek, celery and mushrooms. Once that is browned, you add flour, milk, stock, sherry, a bay leaf and salt and pepper.  You thicken that a little.

In the casserole pan, you put bread on the bottom and spoon half the veggie mix on, then put sliced chicken on it, the rest of the veggie mix and some parmesan cheese.

It looked good when it went into the oven and smelled good as it cooked.

When I took it out, it looked very nice. It was hot all the way through and the liquid absorbed into the bread.

When I tasted it however, I didn’t have a very favorable reaction. There was nothing offensive, but it had no flavor. It was completely bland. First I dumped more salt, pepper and parmesan on, but it didn’t help. Finally I got up and found an herb mix I have called Bouquet Garnee and dumped that on and that helped immensely. If you make this, I recommend adding some rosemary and thyme or maybe some basil or oregano to the veggie mix as it is cooking. It really desperately needs some flavor – otherwise it just tastes like a mouthful of wet bread.

I decided to try the Chicken, Leek and Mushroom casserole from page 45 of Jan Living. It sounded simple and nice for a cold night. In general, I am not a big casserole fan, but this one sounded ok. You start by cooking chicken breasts. Then you cook chopped leek, celery and mushrooms. Once that … Read more →