And sharing the successful ones here on the blog with you guys ?

Here are the pre-requisites for all my dinner recipe creations …

✓ Can be made quickly on busy weeknights
✓ Simple
✓ Flavourful
✓ Healthy
✓ The whole family will enjoy
✓ Can double up for lunchboxes – you can reheat this one up and pop in a thermos for school. For more lunch ideas you may like to check out my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes ebook.

Despite the humble list of ingredients, the Easy Chicken Casserole sure does pack a punch of flavour, but feel free to experiment with more herbs and spices if you like.

If you have a flameproof casserole dish, you can cook the entire recipe up in it. I don’t have one, so I cooked everything up in a frying pan first (I had two going to cook the chicken), then transferred into a casserole dish before popping into the oven for another half an hour.

The result was a hearty and comforting bowl of deliciousness which hit the spot for the whole fam bam and could be heated up and taken to school in thermoses the next day.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Olive oil
Spelt flour
Sea salt
Black pepper
Thyme or oregano
Parsley

Print

Easy Chicken Casserole

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 500 grams chicken thighs
• 1 brown onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 carrots halved lengthways and cut into discs
• 2 potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 2 tablespoons spelt flour
• 400 ml (2 cups) boiling chicken stock
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon thyme or oregano or mixed Italian herbs
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 zucchini diced
• ¼ broccoli cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons parsley chopped

Instructions

• Heat oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish or large frying pan to medium heat (I used 2 frying pans for this step). Season chicken thighs and brown and seal on both sides for few minutes each. Remove and set aside (I just put them in the casserole dish I was going to cook them in) Preheat oven to 200ºC fan oven.
• Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and potatoes to the pan, and cook, stirring, for around 10 minutes. Add the tomato and dried herbs and cook for further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the vegetables are cooking, chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and put back into casserole dish.
• Stir in the flour, cook for 2min, then pour in the stock and simmer for a few minutes (I heated up the chicken stock in one of the frying pans I had used to cook the chicken to save having to wash another dish). Season to taste, then pour over the vegetable/broth mixture. Add peas, zucchini and broccoli.
• Cover and cook in the oven 1 hr until the chicken and vegetables are cooked through and the sauce is piping hot and thickened. Serve in bowls with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life. 

And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes recipe book here. 

It contains 40 scrumptious sweet and savoury recipes which are nut and refined-sugar free and perfect for any time of day.

Other recipes you might like to try for dinner are Chicken Noodle Soup and Crispy Chicken with Garlicky Potato Cream Sauce.

Bren x

Am I right or am I right?!

You can get the kids home after sport, settled into homework and gets started on dinner.

Once you pop it into the oven you’ve got time to throw together a big salad (make enough for leftovers to take to work the next day) to enjoy on the side.

Print

Crispy Chicken With Garlicky Potato Cream Sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 4

Author Berleena Eberle for Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1/2 tbsn olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 800 g organic or pastured chicken thighs - skin on
• 6 kiplfer potatoes or 3 medium sweet potatoes roughly chopped into 2cm pieces
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 2 tbsn butter
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons spelt flour or gluten free flour
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup chicken broth or more, as needed
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
• Season skin well with salt and pepper. Preheat a large ovenproof pan to med – high, add oil and pan fry chicken skin side down for 3-4 minutes. Turn the chicken, searing bottom side for a further 2-3 mins. Turn off heat and scatter potatoes and spinach between chicken.
• Prepare the garlic potato sauce by melting butter in medium skillet over med heat. Add garlic, and stir for 1 min. Whisk in flour, stock and thyme. Turn off heat and stir through cream and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Pour garlicky cream sauce over chicken, spinach and potatoes and bake into the oven for 20-25 mins.
• Garnished with parsley or a squeeze of lemon juice.

Notes

Add as many vegetables as you like!

Enjoy!

I love seeing the pictures of when you make my recipes, so please share them on my Facebook page or Instagram.

Other chicken recipes you and your family might like are Baked Chicken Nuggets and Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie.

Berleena has been the wonderful recipe developer helping me create a series of delicious recipes, here’s a bit more about her…

Berleena Eberle — Food Mindset Coach
Berleena specialises in helping her clients develop a healthy relationship with food and their body. Her clients know how to deal with food triggers, let go of guilt, identify cravings and make healthy eating simple again with nutrient-rich, real food. Berleena strips back nutritional confusion to develop an intuitive eating approach.