Chicken and broccoli gratin

Once upon a time, in a diet group, I was named Broccoli Mia. There wasn't a lot I wasn't willing to swap for the mini trees. I even made broccoli 'flat bread', mixing it blitzed with egg and baking it in the oven. The flat bread was used as open sandwiches and to replace a burger bun. It looked like grass and actually tasted a bit like grass too. Simple boiled broccoli is much nicer and I'm a fan of serving it instead of rice.

This time I used it as a rice substitute, but in a gratin rather than as a side dish. Did it work? Yes, definitely yes. I had a roast chicken to play with, but the legs and wings were needed for other meals, which left the fillets. They were enough for this gratin. My original idea was to make my favourite dish, chicken chillevip (which can be found in one of my other blogs) but to line the tray with broccoli instead of rice or cauliflower. According to the chillevip recipe, the next layer would be chicken, followed by sliced ham. Thereafter a layer of banana coins before it was covered with a sauce.

Hold on! Banana and broccoli? Not even I am that weird. It is one thing swapping rice for cauliflower, then swapping cauliflower for broccoli, but it is a totally different kettle of fish to add banana. It worked when I made the dish with cauliflower. Although there isn't much difference in flavour between cauliflower and broccoli, I couldn't bring myself to throw banana into the mix, at least not this time. Chicken, ham and sauce would have to do.

Because I wasn't following the recipe I had in mind anyway, I may as well play with the sauce. Last time I use full fat Greek yogurt as a gratin topping, it didn't sink into the ingredients like I had wished it to do. That's why I decided to add some milk this time, to make it runnier and more likely to mix and mingle with the chicken. When getting the milk out, I found a pack of cream cheese. Why not add that too? Tomato puree for colour and curry powder for flavour instead of chilli paste. The plan was to stop there, but it tasted too tart. A squirt of ketchup to the rescue.

When you look at the photos below, it looks like a big tray of food, but the two of us polished it off without popping any buttons. Looking at the ingredients, we basically had 1 chicken fillet, 1.5 slice of ham and 1/2 a small head of broccoli each, alongside a few trimmings.

1. Cut the broccoli in half or quarter florets and boil until soft, but still with a bite.

2. Cut the ham and tear the chicken into half-bite sized pieces.

For some reason the chicken needs to be torn, not cut. Cutting it would be wrong and it would affect the texture of the dish. Just don't do it.

3. Get the ingredients out for the sauce. You may want to add ketchup.

The cream cheese isn't strictly necessary. I happened to have some at home and thought it would add extra flavour. 

4. Add the sauce ingredients to a bowl.

5. Mix well until the sauce is smooth and pinky orange. Do a taste test. This is when ketchup can be added, if you think it is necessary.

6. Line an oven proof dish with the cooked broccoli.

7. Add the torn chicken fillets.

8. Add the cut ham.

9. Cover the dish with the sauce and make sure it is spread evenly.

As you can see, adding milk helped the sinking-sauce-mission.

10. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 200 degrees until the the sauce has turned dark orange.

11. Dish up and enjoy. 

This is a dish you can eat with good conscious. Yes, there are fat and calories in the sauce, but the broccoli makes up for every sin, honestly. Just look at the green goodness.

In regards to the banana, I'm glad I didn't add it. The dish was lovely without. I shall keep the banana for the cauliflower and rice versions and leave this one fruit free.