"Divine" may be a bit of a stretch

A few years ago, my family and I were members of St. Timothy's Aiea.  During this time, the congregation compiled a cookbook as a fundraiser.  I guess, from the number of friend I have with similar books, that this is a fairly normal thing.  I got really excited.  It was a fairly diverse congregation, so the odds of finding new and exciting recipes was pretty good.  And everyone puts their best foot forward for such a thing-- either something cheap, quick and never-fail, a crowd-pleaser, or the most amazing thing they ever learned to make.  It's a pretty cool thing.




Recently, I found myself wondering what I ought to do with the chicken pieces I had in my freezer (I'd bought and broken down a whole bird while making soup, but had hardly used any meat.)  I starting flipping through the church cookbook, and decided on "Chicken Divine".  Not only is the name pretty promising, but I had most of the ingredients handy.  It's an interesting, rather Hawaiian casserole.  I mean, I cannot think of anywhere else people would combine cheese and curried mayonnaise.  But in Hawaii, sure.  Why not have some Spam with that?  But that's another blog…

Below is the recipe as I found it in the book; check my notes (in italics) for clarification and/or modification.

Chicken Divine
2 10-oz. boxes frozen broccoli, chopped
2 C boneless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (or ham, if preferred)
1 10-oz. can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken, if preferred)
1 C mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 C bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Pour boiling water over the broccoli and drain well, arrange in a buttered 9x13-inch pan.  Distribute the chicken over the broccoli.
In a mixing bowl, combine the soup, mayo, lemon juice, and curry powder.  Pour/spread the mixture over the chicken and broccoli.  Top with cheese and bread crumbs, then bake 30 minutes.

Notes: 
- I used less broccoli than called for-- I got a 1 lb bag and figured that was close enough.  Consequently, I also used a smaller pan-- closer to 7x11 than 9x13.
- Pre-cook the chicken.  I went back and forth on whether or not to do this.  I ended up partially cooking the chicken, and still felt it was just slightly under-done.  I dealt with this by microwaving the food, which was a little silly when it was piping hot out of the oven, but convenient when re-heating.
- Use more curry powder.  And possibly some pepper.  I also am a cheese fan, so I used closer to a whole cup.  And probably more bread crumbs, too.



This dish could probably have been named better.  For one, the broccoli seemed to be more present than the chicken.  And while it was a delicious dish, "divine", to me, has connotations of lightness.  (Think angel food cake.)  The mayo, while giving the casserole a semi-whipped texture, is rather heavy.  So much so that, although it was tasty, I wasn't thrilled at the idea of eating tons of leftovers.  The mayo just sort of sits in my stomach.  It's probably a psychological thing-- for the longest time I would not eat mayo, so knowing how much is in this probably put me off a tad.  

That said, I really did like the flavors of this dish.  It was rich, it was flavorful without being spicy, zesty, or over-whelming.  I would recommend it for potlucks or feeding relatives while they're visiting-- any time you don't expect lots of leftovers.  And should you have some anyway, it does reheat well.