Chicken and spinach casserole

We have a confession to make. We haven't been bowled over by the Martha Stewart recipes we've tried from Everyday Food. More often than not, they haven't turned out well (pretzel-popcorn bars grainy with too much sugar, anyone?).

But earlier this week we hit upon a winner. Chicken and spinach casserole. It was written the way Everyday Food sometimes writes recipes, with the ingredients embedded in paragraph form. This makes it hard to glance at as you're frantically trying to whip up dinner.

So we've listed the ingredients for you. And added cheese. Those are pretty much our only variations, though. It's comforting and rich as is. Our kids even gobbled it up.

This is a smallish casserole, so double it if you're serving more than three adults or two adults and two children.

Rating: 3/4 assed (it almost made 1/2 assed, but had a few separate steps that were not hard, but mucked up the simplicity factor we consider when rating recipes).

Here's what you need and how you do it

2 cups french or sourdough bread, torn into bite-sized pieces

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Coarse salt

Pepper

4 cups packed baby spinach

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup white wine

2 Tablespoons flour

1-1/2 cups half-and-half

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup rotisserie chicken, shredded

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a bowl, combine torn bread, 1 Tablespoon olive oil and some salt. Set aside.

In a medium pot, heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Add spinach and a little salt. Cook until wilted. Let cool and squeeze out as much water as you can. Set aside.

Wipe pot clean and heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Add garlic and onion and cook until both are soft, about 8 minutes.

Add white wine to pot and cook until almost evaporated. Add flour and stir until incorporated into olive oil and wine. Gradually whisk in half-and-half. Add lemon juice and bring mixture to a boil.

Remove from heat and stir in spinach and chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to 2-quart baking dish and top with parmesan and bread pieces. Bake until bread is golden brown and mixture is bubbling, 8 to 10 minutes.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Comments

[Chris]

I've not had good luck with "Everyday Food" receipes either. Just printed this one. I'm anxious to give it a try. Thanks!

[Carla]

How many servings?

[Half Assed Kitchen]

3 to 4 adult servings.

[Tatersamama]

This looks SO good! In fact so good that I'm going to give it a try tonight!

[Janet]

Sounds good!

[green furniture]

This can feed my big family. Really looks good. Thanks.

[Megan]

what is half and half? I'm guessing milk...

There are 2 problems with being in Australia - I can't work out the translation of some ingredients, and the seasons are opposite. We're heading into summer so I'm off to trawl the archives.

[Half Assed Kitchen]

Megan,

Half and half is milk mixed with cream. Half of each.

I'm working on getting a conversion widget on the blog. Thanks for your patience!

[Meat grinders for home use]

I'm generally not a type of person that can follow a receipe - I allways think that I should do something different and I usually fail. But, in this case will do my best to follow the receipe exactly, because pictures look stunning. Thanks for sharing!

[Hey Nana]

I agree with your assessment of Everyday Food. I really don't understand who would eat the garbage they come up with!

[Kelley]

Recently found your blog, it's great. I would definitely say I am a bit challenged in the Cooking area. Thanks for easing the pain just a bit.

[c]

I made this the night I saw it, and we loved it. My hubby, who dislikes most casseroles, thought it was great. It was a pretty good size for the two us, too. We had some leftovers for lunch the next day, but honestly, it didn't reheat well.

[Half Assed Kitchen]

Thanks for letting us know about the reheating issue!

[Tammi]

I made this yesterday because I had leftover chicken, spinach, and sourdough bread that I either needed to use or throw away. I also had some mushrooms which I added. This received rave reviews from my daughter. I have never served a casserole before but have been experimenting with new recipes to use up leftovers or what I have available. Love your website.

[enfuegoinc]

Looks like a great chicken recipe.