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Easy Peasy Creamy Chicken Divan
So my husband introduced me to this dish a few years ago. This is a dinner recipe that he and his family have been making on a regular basis since he was a child.
Essentially, it's mainly steamed broccoli, with a creamy chicken sauce and croutons over the top. He said we had to make mashed potatoes because that's what they always served with it. lol He's so cute.
Because this is my husband's recipe, he is always the one that makes it.
You'll see that I had to work hard to take pictures while he was cooking it, which means hairy hands and slightly blurred pictures as I couldn't get him to stop moving so I could take a picture.
This doesn't make it any less easy to follow, or any less delicious in the end.
It took less than 10 minutes to put together, especially since he just used the shredded chicken I had in the refrigerator from a previous recipe.
If you need to cook your chicken breast first, I would add anywhere from a few minutes (on the grill), or 20 minutes (on the stove), to an hour (in the oven) to the recipe.
You could even make this recipe even healthier and avoid the canned cream of chicken soup altogether and instead make an alternative homemade recipe for the same thing with flour, butter and chicken broth (I use the cubes dissolved in water).
Not only is this recipe chock full of yummy broccoli and chicken, but it is a wonderfully healthy meal to serve to your whole family.
Let me get to the recipe!!
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken breast, shredded
- 2 large heads broccoli
- 1 (15oz) can Cream of Chicken, (or my Alternative Cream of Chicken recipe)
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 3 pieces bread for croutons, (See my Easy Peasy Croutons recipe)
- 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese
Instructions
- Set your oven temperature to 350 degrees F and spray a square casserole dish thoroughly with cooking spray.
- If you are cooking your chicken breast, this would be the time to thaw and cook it. For the purpose of this recipe, we are using a pre-cooked and pre-shredded chicken breast from another of my recipes.
- Grilling would be the fastest way to cook your breast (a few minutes), cooking over the stove still wouldn't take very long (20 minutes), and baking would take the longest, but require the least amount of work on your part (1 hour).
- In the meantime, roughly chop or pull apart your heads of broccoli into large chunks.
- Next, chop your broccoli into smaller pieces.
- Lay your broccoli out evenly on the bottom of your casserole dish and then fill it up with the rest of your broccoli pieces.
- In a separate large bowl, open and empty the contents of your cream of chicken soup into your bowl.
- (For a healthier version of this dish, consider using an Alternative Cream of Chicken soup recipe.)
- Add your sour cream to the bowl with your cream of chicken.
- Next, squeeze the juice from a half a lemon into your bowl.
- Finally, add your chili powder.
- Mix all of your ingredients together.
- Before adding to your casserole dish, add your shredded chicken to your mixture.
- Mix your chicken into your soup mixture and pour on top of your broccoli.
- Spread your chicken and soup mixture evenly across the top of your casserole dish.
- Pop several pieces of toast into your toaster or oven (on low broil) until toasted.
- Cut your toast into strips and then into small squares.
- Spread your croutons evenly across the top of your chicken divan.
- Finally, top with your cheese and spread evenly over your croutons.
- Pop your casserole into the oven and bake for 30 minutes until brown.
- Serve with my Easy Peasy Homemade Mashed Potatoes.
- Yummy! Yummy!
Nutritional Information
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 cup of Chicken Divan | |
| Calories | 243 |
| Calories from Fat | 117 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 13 g | 20% |
| Saturated fat 5 g | 25% |
| Unsaturated fat 0 g | |
| Carbohydrates 14 g | 5% |
| Sugar 3 g | |
| Fiber 2 g | 8% |
| Protein 18 g | 36% |
| Cholesterol 50 mg | 17% |
| Sodium 805 mg | 34% |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
Personal Review
So we my husband originally made this recipe, he used mayo instead of sour cream, because that was the original recipe his family used. Gross!
I could barely eat it because I simply cannot stand mayonnaise. The thought of it grosses me out. I would much rather use sour cream or plain yogurt before mayo.
So this time he used sour cream instead and it was wonderful! However, he left the broccoli in huge chunks in the bottom of the casserole dish, which meant that when we ate it, we were pulling out huge chunks of broccoli on our forks.
I would most certainly have chopped up the broccoli into small pieces. He also tossed the broccoli stems because he can't stand eating them, lol, though I tried to explain that those were the healthiest, most nutrient-rich part of the broccoli.
Finally, I felt like the sauce was really thick and there was nothing in the bottom of the pan to cook the broccoli. After cooking, the sauce was fine, but low and behold, the broccoli was a little crunchy.
I still liked it (I thought it was delicious!), but I would recommend putting a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of water down in the bottom of the pan before cooking, or using my recipe for Easy Peasy Steamed Broccoli first before adding the broccoli to the casserole dish.
This is definitely a meal that we will be repeating again and again! Enjoy!
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© 2014 Victoria Van Ness
