As I mentioned in 9-12: Shepherd’s Pie, I had a LOT of potatoes to get rid of after buying too many at Costco. So here’s another potato recipe for you: 6-30: Scottish Chicken Casserole.
EDIT: This seems to be a popular one–not sure why, since it’s not very exciting. Easy, but not thrilling. If that’s what you’re here for, game on. If you want to know more about this site/me, read this. Thanks for visiting!
Offhand, I have no idea why it’s “Scottish”, other than it seems similar to a lot of food you get in the UK. A cursory Google search turned up this recipe, which seems kind of like this one. This other recipe (from the same search) gives a bit more history, linking it to a classic French (and Scottish) casserole-type dish.
I don’t think anyone’s made this one before–probably because the idea of breaking down a whole chicken (and the long cook time) served as a deterrent.
Ingredients. I also viewed breaking down a whole chicken as a deterrent (plus I didn’t have one on hand), so I used frozen boneless chicken thighs instead. No stock on hand, so chicken bouillon will have to do for broth.
More potato peeling. Remember, sink drains and peels are mortal enemies.
Defrosted my chicken thighs in the microwave and broke those down into smaller chunks.
Melting butter in my cast-iron Dutch oven.
Fitted the slicer blade to the food processor for easy scalloping/slicing of potatoes.
Browning chicken in the Dutch oven on the stove.
Onions ready to slice.
Potatoes after slicing. You have to work fast–these ones are already going red/brown as they’re exposed to air. Filling this bowl with water (submerging them) will help keep them from browning.
Might as well let the food processor tackle the onions as well.
What was left in the pan after browning the chicken. I’m just going to use this to make my broth–adds that extra chicken flavor.
All of that flavor from the pan is now in that broth. No wasting good flavor!
Layers of chicken, potato, onion, & spices–as directed. Broth gets poured over the top.
See you in a while.
After cooking. It’s got some color, but looks mostly the same.
Looks better after a good stir. The potatoes break up a bit, but it’s still got a pretty good texture to it. Warm and filling, but nothing fancy.
Final shot. Eats like a VERY thick stew, but very simple in terms of flavor. Might have been interesting to try it with whole pieces of chicken instead of the small boneless pieces I used.
Grade: B+