Chicken casserole with herb crumb topping please!

lurtz, I'm now home and can confirm that the recipe as posted at #10 is indeed the same as the recipe I offered you except that it is definitely called Roast Chicken Casserole in the book of Alison's where I found the recipe many years ago.Alison also suggests using 8-10 chicken pieces as an alternative to a whole chicken.
For Christmas, based on this recipe I have made a very popular turkey variation with added craisins (dried cranberries) and cranberry sauce.
If our 2012 Christmas is here at home, it'll definitely be on the menu again because it was so very well received and enjoyed by all with, on Christmas Day, no carving required and no bones to be dealt with then either.:-))

Thanks so much 245sam. In the end I made both recipes, and both were very well received. The Alison Holst one was indeed the recipe I remembered. I like your variation, and will certainly give that a go too. I hope you had a lovely holiday.

An elderly friend made this, and she's now passed on. It consisted of choppedboneless chicken in some type of sauce or gravy, and was then topped with buttered bread crumbs with herbs. If anyone has asimilar recipe I'd be grateful. I have done Search via Recipes, however no luck.

Know you checked recipes but this sounds nice. You could replace sage leaves with mixed herbs & adapt casserole to your taste. (kiwigoldie's recipe)

Chicken Broccoli Gratin.

75g Fresh Bread Crumbs
2-3 Sage Leaves finely chopped.
1 small white onion
25g butter
20g Flat leaf parsely
Melt the butter in a small frying pan and saute the onion for a few minutes then stir in the breadcrumbs and herbs and season to taste. Let it all come together for a couple of minutes you you this as your topping. Set aside.

450 g Broccoli cut into florets boil the jug and tip the broccoli into a saucepan and add the boiled water let it sit for a few minutes then drain off water set aside. (you can boil the broccoli a little if you like it softer)

Make a Bechamel sauce as follows:
450 ml milk
1 small onion cut into quarters
1 Bay Leaf
six peppercorns black
25g butter
25g plain flour
pinch of nutmeg
salt and freshly grated pepper.
1. Place the milk in a pan with the onion bay leaf and peppercorns. Bring to scalding point (just before milk boils) then remove from heat cover and set aside to infuse for at least 10 minutes pef. 30 minutes. Then stain through a sieve into a jug.
While the milk is infusing. Pull apart your cooked chicken into bite sized pieces and pop it into a square shaped ceramic cooking dish.

2. Wipe out the same pan and melt the butter and add the flour best to use a whisk so it won go lumpy stir for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually pour in the infused milk, whisking until smooth after each addition. Season and add a pinch of nutmeg.

3. Bring sauce to the boil whisking constantly then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until smooth and thicken.

4. You can now add 150ml of chicken stock and 4 tablespoons of double cream or creme fraiche. ( I use sour cream as well if I don't have either of the other two). Bring to a simmer then cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally until you have achieved a thick pouring sauce. You should have about 600ml in total. Season to taste.

Combine the sauce with the chicken and mix through the broccoli and sprinkle the topping over the top.

Bake at 190 c for about 20 mins until bubbling and golden brown. Serves 4.

Thanks kassie48. This looks super!

lurtz, the chicken casserole you describe 'sounds' very like the recipe for Roast Chicken Casserole which is in Alison Holst's 1st Dollars & Cents Cookbook - I am currently not at home otherwise I would post that recipe for you now.If you'd still like the recipe after 03 January (when we return to our home) I will happily post it for you then but basically the whole chicken is cooked with water, soy sauce and !, then the meat is shredded and a gravy is made with the stock from cooking the chicken and !.The chicken is added to the gravy along with bacon, then placed in a casserole dish and a topping (breadcrumbs, onion and !) added.

Sorry I can't help you more at this stage.:-))

245sam you are a gem.
Yes, I'd love your recipe. No hurry though.I hope you are having a great holiday:-)In the meantime I will make the delicious looking one Kassie48 posted, because I want to deliver it to a young couple who have just had a baby. My old friend gave me the casserole under similar circumstances many years ago.I get a bit nostalgic remembering food gifted to me, and the circumstances in which they were gifted, and so that's why I though this particular recipe would be a perfect present; along with some other food items, fortired parents. Many thanks.

I make a similar recipe. Cook chicken and make gravy. Break up chicken meat and place in oven dish. Pour gravy over. Make up a kind of stuffing mix - I cook diced onion and mixed herbs in butter/oil, add cubed bread, mix well and sprinkle over chicken and gravy.Bake until topping is golden and crunchy and the meat and gravy are bubbling. I sometimes make this recipe ahead of time, then place in fridge until required. Bake as usual.

You could also make it using a bought cooked chicken, packet gravy and packet stuffing mix if you are in a hurry.

Thanks for this ayglepayle:-)It seems that there are many variations of this recipe, and it's great that folk are happy to share them. All suggestions so gratefully taken on board. All the best for the New Year to you too.

I make something similar with the cheap chooks from the likes of the mad butcher (mine is west meats we don't have a mad butcher) the $4.50 chooks, anyway, I boil/steam the chook in about 5 cm of water, with onion mixed herbs salt and pepper, when its cooked, remove the chook, and keep the stock, and put in veges, onion again, cubed potato, carrots, parsnips, brocolli, whatever you have basically, and cook until just cooked, then remove, then add about a cup of milk and thicken with a flour mix.
Debone and dice the chicken, add to vege on a casserole dish, stir all together gently with the gravy, then top with balls of stuffing and bake until bubbling and the stuffing balls are cooked. Its a cheap way of feeding a lot of people and always popular.

I make the same as 245sam, thicken some of the water that the chicken has been cooked in with a bit of cornflour and pour that over the shredded chicken, put a couple of cooked bacon, cut up, over the chicken, melt some butter in a frypan, saute a large onion, put in fresh breadcumbs and coat them in the butter then add some mixed herbs and put that on top of the chiken in the casserole dish. Just needs heated up till the topping goes crunchy. My recipe is called crunchy chicken casserole and is very popular in this household. Enjoy

Here's Alison Holst's Crunchy Chicken recipe -

1 chicken
1-2 rashers bacon
1 cup water
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic - crushed
cornflour to thicken
salt and pepper
2 tbsp butter
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

Place chicken (whole or jointed) in a saucepan with bacon, water, soya sauce and garlic. Cover and simmer over very low heat for about an hour or until flesh is tender.
Bone chicken and place flesh in shalloe ovenware dish. Chop bacon and sprinkle over chicken.
Strain liquid and thicken with cornflour paste, season and pour over chicken.
Melt butter and cook onion in it until it is tender but not browned. Remove from heat and mix well with dries herbs and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over cooled sauce and chicken. Refrigerate until required.
Reheat at 190 C until topping is crisp and sauce and chicken have heated through (about 30 -40 minutes)
Variation: Add chopped sautéed mushrooms to boned chicken and sauce mixture.

Dezzie, Jazzryn, ayglepaygle. It's very generous of you all to share, and thank you. I appreciate your replies. The best to you and yours. Warmest wishes for the New year.

I make the same as 245sam, thicken some of the water that the chicken has been cooked in with a bit of cornflour and pour that over the shredded chicken, put a couple of slices of cooked bacon, cut up, over the chicken, melt some butter in a frypan, saute a large onion, put in fresh breadcumbs and coat them in the butter then add some mixed herbs and put that on top of the chiken in the casserole dish. Just needs heated up till the topping goes crunchy. My recipe is called crunchy chicken casserole and is very popular in this household. Enjoy