Chicken Potato Bake

This might seem kind of crazy, but I often sit down to do my meal plan for the upcoming week, and I am stumped.

What?!? I know, I know, you are probably wondering how can that be, since I have a website with a ton of recipes from which to choose.

You would think that meal planning would be the last thing that stumps me, right?  Ha!

Are you guys early risers? I’d much prefer to go to bed late and get up late, but realistically I know that’s never going to work if I want to get my job done before 10pm. So I’m continuing to work at going to bed early.

In an ideal world, I’d go to bed at 10pm, be asleep by 11pm and get up at 6am.

Why is 6am so hard?? Has anyone got any tips? Is anyone else out there a night owl who’s been able to swap it round and get out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off? I’m a snooze button addict (minimum 10 x snooze. I know it’s bad, but that’s how much I hate getting out of bed).

Maybe eating cream and carby potatoes as an evening meal doesn’t help, but come on, I’m not giving this up:

Well, I think it is a similar phenomenon as the one that causes Thing 1 and Thing 2 to meander into our fully stocked kitchen, look through the pantry and fridge, and declare that there is nothing to eat!

I have come to realize that I can never go wrong with chicken recipes for dinner.  No one complains and everyone practically licks their plate (and the casserole dish too!).

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
• 3 medium carrots peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 4 tbsp white wine
• 215 ml double cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 100 g mature cheddar cheese grated
• 50 g parmesan cheese grated
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• Pinch of dried thyme
• 375 g cooked chicken approx. 3 chicken breasts, shredded
• 100 g baby spinach leaves
• 350 g baby new potatoes thinly sliced (no need to peel)
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• Fresh thyme to garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion, garlic and carrots and cook on medium heat, stirring regularly until the onion softens.
3. Add the wine, bring to the boil, then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the cream and mustard and stir together. Heat through until almost boiling, then stir in both cheeses, along with a good pinch of salt, pepper and dried thyme.
4. Add the cooked chicken and spinach and heat through until the spinach wilts.
5. Spoon the chicken mixture into a large baking dish, then layer the potatoes on top, starting from the outside and working inwards. Once covered in the potato slices, brush with the melted butter and sprinkle on a pinch of salt and pepper.
6. Place in the oven to bake for 30-40 mins, until the potatoes are tender and golden brown.
7. Top with fresh thyme before serving.

Share this post