Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Casserole
Posted by in FoodI 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.
Veggies
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.
Ready for the oven
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.
Ready to serve
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.
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It looks good and I’m sorry to hear it tasted so bland. I just made a potato leek soup yesterday and it was so bland too. I had to add lots of salt, wine, sauteed onions, garlic and thyme that wasn’t called for in the recipe before it tasted good with lots of flavor.
That’s interesting that you had a similar soup that was bland. Maybe you and I just don’t like bland food and some people do?
I, too, was intrigued by the chicken, leek and mushroom casserole in the January 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living. I tore the recipe out of the magazine and put it in a place for safe keeping. Today I purchased all the ingredients ready to make the casserole for dinner tonight. However, the safe place I put the recipe is so safe, I could not find the recipe. I tried to find it online, but no success.
Could you send me the recipe.
Mary Ann – I’m emailing it to you. Let me know what you think of it.
Mary Ann – I tried to email this to you but my email was rejected. I’ll try from my Gmail account.
So I tried this and posted much more favorable results on my blog:
http://detroitcityeats.blogspot.com/2009/01/marthas-chicken-casserole-surprises.html
I did adopt your suggestion of adding another spice to the liquid mixture; I added rosemary. I also made sure the liquid mixture was well cooked and thick. I also use a chicken stock I really like (since I don’t usually have homemade on hand) by Better than Bouillon.
My wife and I really loved the recipe. It turned out excellent. I highly recommend it.
i made this casserole two days before serving and then took it out of the refrigerator 1.5 hours before heating through. i heated it at 350 for 45 minutes. very flavorful and was a hit with my lunch fiends. it is a keeper.