Month-of-Chicken: Popeye Chicken Casserole

Okay, I’ll grant that most of you are too young to remember Popeye the Sailor Man (toot, toot). Still that icon of a spinach-eating sweet-but-tough guy made its way into the popular culture, popularizing what I would guess is not a popular veggie.

Now, I happen to love spinach--now. But as a child, when all I ever was served was home-canned spinach--not so much. It was slimy and slick and an odd green. We grew spinach, but never ate it fresh. It was for canning for the cold winter months.

As an adult, I had spinach fresh in a salad. Whoa! This was spinach? Then I lightly steamed it, and I not only loved the fresh green color, but the taste was amazing. Same with a light sauté.

These days we eat a lot of spinach. Served under a slab of salmon, in my quiche, on pizza, tossed in a salad, tucked in a casserole. Love it! Today I share an easy busy-day recipe that is beautiful with its colors and its flavors.

Popeye Chicken Casserole (serves 6)

½ c mayo

½ c Greek yogurt, plain

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 grinds of the pepper mill

½ c Asiago cheese, grated

¼ c Fontina cheese, shredded

2 c chicken, leftovers, diced

2 c fresh spinach (or 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained)

Preheat oven to 350º. Pam an 8” or 9” baking dish.

Mix mayo, yogurt, garlic, pepper, Asiago, and Fontina in a small bowl.

In a larger bowl, combine 1/3 of the sauce with the chicken and spinach. Spread in the baking dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the mixture and smooth across the surface evenly.

Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up. This man loves casseroles, especially casseroles that feel and look health-conscious. And as casseroles go, you get a filling meal with relatively few calories.

Month-of-Chicken: Mother and Child Reunion

“No I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away.”

Did I get the song playing in your head, too? Apologies to Paul Simon, but do you think he cooks? If so, he’d love for this chicken recipe to be his signature dish when he sings this song. Maybe slices could be passed around at the concert. The “motion”, of course, is whisking!

Intrigued? I hope so, but how could a Chicken Quiche be described as anything other than a mother-child reunion?

Quiche is a standby in our family’s panoply of foods. I’ll bet I make it at least once a month. DH loves it for dinner, brunch, or lunch. And because he is abstemious in his eating habits, one quiche provides us with three meals each.

I make a wide range of quiches: sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with bacon, or, in this case, chicken chunks.

My quiche is a simple matter--I don’t do hard, remember--so you can whip this up in nothing flat and then forget it in the oven for an hour to an hour and a half depending on the altitude.

Mother and Child Reunion Quiche

1 pie crust

1½ c Asiago cheese, divided

2 c packed spinach

½ c mushroom pieces

1 c diced chicken, leftover

8 large eggs, slightly cooler than room temp

2 c heavy whipping cream

sprinkle of salt and pepper

1 t nutmeg

3 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 375º. Put pie crust in pie pan. Spread ¾ cup of cheese on the pie crust bottom, going up the sides a bit.

Layer spinach, mushrooms, and chicken. Press into pan, but it will be full.

Cut onions into small pieces and set aside.

Whisk eggs until a light, lemony color. Add cream and blend thoroughly. Add spices and whisk again. Add onions and stir them in.

Pour the eggs slowly over the spinach mixture, making sure the eggs coat all the spinach mixture. Press down on spinach, if necessary, to coat with eggs. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.

Bake at 375º for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350º. Bake for about another 45 minutes and check for doneness.

Quiche can take up to 1-1½ hours of baking time depending on the oven. A done quiche has three characteristics: rises to a lovely brown dome, no jiggle in the middle, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up   It doesn’t matter what quiche I make, DH loves it. That’s so reassuring to know you have an easy, go-to, never-fail dinner on tap!