This is a regular meal in our house as it can feel so naughty being a creamy dish and makes a great meal to serve up for guests who won’t believe this is actually slimming friendly.
When I plan this meal I plan it when I cook a gammon joint and have half with chips and egg and then leaving the other half for this meal the next day, you can however buy already cooked gammon joints if you don’t have time to do this.
The cranberries and stuffing included as optional ingredients make a great festive alternative to this dish and the filling makes a great pastry topped pie too which is very similar to the Greggs festive slice which is a huge weakness of mine come Christmas.
Some recommended items from our kitchen to make this dish…
- A big time saver for chopping veg with a veg chopper, from onions to carrots this is a god send to chop quickly.
- Double sided dry and liquid measuring spoons for times when you need to measure both liquid and dry ingredients.
- Cheese grater with varying grater sizes.
- A decent set of knives for chopping, with a knife sharpener which is always handy.
- A lot of our dishes are pyrex, great for cooking. Perfect for roasters too and easy to clean.
- Non-stick milk pan as I love having the lip to make it easier to pour without spillage.
- Silicone whisks in varying sizes.
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Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 – 8 white potatoes, peeled and chopped (you want enough mash to serve 4 people)
- 30g parmesan cheese, finely grated
Filling:
- 4 chicken breasts, diced small
- Half a small cooked smoked gammon, diced (either pre cooked from the supermarket or boil your own the night before)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and diced small
- 1 chicken oxo cube
- 10 brussel sprouts, shredded
- 4 tablespoons cranberry sauce (we make our own but use shop brought if you prefer) – Optional
- 25g dried stuffing – Optional
White sauce:
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 400ml whole milk
- 30g parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 tablespoon dried sage
METHOD:
- Preheat oven 180°C fan.
- Cook the potatoes until soft, drain the water, and mash with half of the cheese, set aside the mash and remaining cheese for now.
- Make the filling… In a heavy bottomed saucepan sauté the sprouts and onion for a few minutes, add the chicken and crumble in the oxo cube and cook till starting to brown, add the gammon and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to an oven proof dish and set aside for now.
- Make the sauce…In a milk pan add a little milk to the cornflour to make a paste then mix the rest of the milk and simmer until thickened, whisk in the dried sage and add a little water to thin it down if it gets too thick.
- Whisk in the cheese and bring to a steady simmer and simmer on a low heat for a few minutes continuously stirring until the cheese is melted, season with salt and pepper if needed.
- Pour the sauce into the dish with the chicken and stir to coat everything together.
- (Optional) Scatter over the majority of the stuffing (leave a third of the stuffing for the topping) and dot the cranberry sauce around.
- Top with the mash and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and the stuffing mixture (optional).
- Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve alongside some tender stem broccoli for a tasty meal.
NOTES:
- If you are not keen on sprouts you can swap to cabbage or leeks also work well in this dish.
- Any stuffing mix works well in this, we enjoy a cranberry and orange stuffing which we usually find in Tesco but bog standard sage and onion is just fine.
- I highly recommend using smoked gammon and not the unsmoked purely because it has so much more flavour and there is no need to add any salt into the dish, however still taste test and check as with all recipes adjust to your own tastes.
- We also use whole milk in our recipes, purely because its much creamier for cooking with and has more flavour than the watered down milks. As much as you can adjust this recipe to suit another type of milk it isn’t really recommended as it can change the end result.
Hickmans Slim Kitchen 