Confetti Chicken

I used to only eat chicken. For about three years this was my go to book: Hurry Up Chicken Recipes I find it a bit on the funny side that you can now purchase this book for $0.01.

It served me well through my late teenage years and early twenties. In fact, I remember thinking that Chicken Alla Vineyard (no, not a typo, actual recipe name) was sew fancy. Look at me, I bought the SKINLESS chicken.

I've moved on from that, but in a panic for chicken thigh inspiration yesterday I turned once again through the pages and came across a recipe that was a massive hit. Easy, tasty and fairly quick. This isn't it though, I didn't take photos. I'll make it again soon and I promise I'll post it.

Today while staring slack-jawed at a package of b/l s/l chicken breast, I decided to see what inspiration awaited me in Hurry Up Chicken. A cleverly inserted comma would make a great joke. Anyhow, one thing that I love in a cookbook is a well organized index, and this book in particular has an index that not only identifies each recipe by name but ALSO by chicken type (boneless, pieces, whole, etc.). Unfortunately that failed to yield inspiration, so I resorted to flipping through the pages, looking for a picture that would pique my interest.

And here is when we finally come to confetti chicken:

Mine did not look like that: FYI. It looked even BETTER! iphone does a lot, but it doesn't do this dish justice. I tweaked the recipe based on what I had onhand, so while it's substantially the same, if you are opening your Hurry Up Chicken cookbook right now, you will see some differences.

Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

Casserole:

1 cup diced carrots
3/4 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup water
1 can cream mushroom
1 cup plain 3.5% yogurt
3 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper

Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp chopped green pepper (this is what makes the "confetti" so chop it finely
1 1/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:
(Casserole) Heat your heavy bottomed frying pan and cook your chicken breast. I used Epicure's Hot Artichoke Dip seasoning for my chicken. I left my chicken slightly underdone because I figured it would finish cooking later in the recipe.

While your chicken is cooking, chop your onions, carrots and mushrooms. Once cooked, set your chicken aside. Now, see all the delicious brown flavour goodness stuck to the bottom of your pan? Add your water and then scrape it all up with a wooden spoon. Add your onions and carrots, then cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

In a 3 quart casserole, I used this one from Le Creuset, mix your soup, yogurt, chicken, mushrooms, Worcestershire and salt and pepper. Add your simmered vegetables and mix well.

Make ahead tip: I did everything up to this step in advance then refrigerated until I was ready to bake it. This would be good for a weekday supper. Prep it the night before, then when you get home from work make the dumplings and bake.

Topping:
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and one cup of the cheese and make a well. Mix together eggs, milk and green pepper then pour into well. Mix until just combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the casserole and bake in a 350F oven for 40-45 minutes until golden. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese then return to oven until melted.

Okay, don't laugh, I'm telling you iphone sucks at photos and I'm still saving for a proper camera:

Of course, it would have been wiser to snap a photo prior to the kids and I demolishing half of it. But it was so goood! Crisp on the outside, doughy on the inside, creamy chicken casserole on the bottom.

This would be a great day after turkey dish since the meat needs to be cooked prior to adding it anyway!