Chicken Divan Goes Local
Life is a balancing act. Sometime you cook a super healthy dinner from scratch using all local ingredients. Other times you open a couple cans of Cream of Chicken soup. Today I did the latter, but still made a dish that was tasty and healthy–and mostly local! We ate Chicken Divan–chicken and broccoli (or green beans) covered in a creamy sauce.
This dish is a perfect mid-winter meal, steamy and rich, when the snow blows outside. And surprisingly, a more “processed” ingredient like canned soup can help make use of local foods. I took out a bag of frozen (CSA) broccoli, then used leftovers from a roasted free range chicken raised by a local farmer. The recipe calls for 4 (regular store) chicken breasts, but the two breasts leftover from the prior night’s dinner was the perfect quantity (about 20 oz). Yup those free range chickens are meaty!
My kids always like it when I make a recipe from my childhood (though we called it Chicken Supreme growing up). All I have to do is tell them it is one of Grandma’s recipes and you can feel the excitement. And did you know that the “cream of” soups aren’t as unhealthy as their reputation now that the lower fat and healthy recipe versions are available? While they may have a few ingredients I can’t quite identify, they are low in fat and not too high in sodium after you add in all the rest of the ingredients. So once in awhile I toss them into a dish and don’t think twice.
I serve the Chicken Divan over brown rice and add a nice salad. Steamy, creamy and a snap to make, it is the perfect comfort food!
Chicken Divan
Ingredients
- 1 packages broccoli spears
- 4 chicken breasts cooked and sliced (about 20 oz)
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup mayonnaise preferably Reduced Fat
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ cup grated cheese
Instructions
- Layer broccoli and chicken in casserole.
- Mix soup, mayonnaise, curry powder and lemon juice. Spoon over broccoli and chicken.
- Top with grated cheese.
- Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.
- Serve over (ideally brown) rice.
Nutrition
- Strawberry Meringue Cups Two Ways
- Beessential Natural Products Giveaway
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Chicken divan is a favourite of mine. Perfect for a cold-weather day!
i’ve never tried curry in my chicken divan–what a tasty addition!
Always great when you get can get locally sourced foods!
Gotta love that food nostalgia, don’t you Phi!
This looks like such a good dish, totally reminiscent of something my mother in law made, definitely need to try this for my hubby 🙂
Gotta love that food nostalgia, don’t you Phi!
Also one of my fave dishes growing up. I’ve never made it myself though! I like your addition of curry powder, sounds interesting! I am going to make this.
It’s a great dish if you are low on energy Erica! Trader Joe’s even has quick cooking brown rice.
Love this Inger! Look soo good!!!
xo
Thanks Gloria!
Inger, I’ve printed this one. Looks like something we will like.
Hope you get a chance to try it Freeda!
Hi Inger!
I actually did a “clean out the fridge” soup tonight using leftover “chubby” chicken breasts and leftover fresh and local string beans. Of course I added carrots and celery and the like and came {{this}} close to tossing in a can of “cream of” when I realized I had some leftover canned chick peas which wouldn’t thicken everything quite nicely and it did:)
I do however use canned cream of soups every now and again such as in recipes like this classic. We called it Chicken Supreme too but now that it has gone local, Chicken Divan is more appropriate I think:)
Looks yummy, Inger, perfect for this horrid weather too. Thanks for sharing, Inger…
P.S. Do you have any Meatball recipes you’d like to share? If so, pop on over to my blog to see what I’m doing with them:)
Good for you for doing your own alternative to canned soup Louise! I figured it must be possible, but wasn’t up to the trial and error.
I will have to check out your meatballs–I don’t actually do any myself. Might be the perfect time to remedy that!