Recipe: Comfy Chicken Casserole (AIP/Paleo, grain free, dairy free)

Four score and a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this recipe in the depths of Google. We made it pretty much per the directions and it turned out a little watery, but overall we were happy with the taste (so good) and decided we'd add it into our rotation of paleo dinners. It's pretty simple, basically just steamed broccoli and mushrooms chicken and bacon with a garlicky cauliflower puree and some herbs, baked all together.

A couple of days ago we revisited it, and this time left out some stuff, and changed it up a bit and it was AMAZING. All three of us cleaned our plates (even the 18 month old!) and Marshall went back for seconds and cleaned his plate again. This is definitely a recipe we will be doubling in the future and making when friends come to visit!

It has the taste and texture of comfort food, but made completely grain and dairy free and therefore nutrient dense and delicious for you and your people.

Some quick facts about my kitchen and how we cook:
1) I rarely have fresh spices/herbs. I currently have basil and rosemary growing in my garden (aka I haven't killed them yet) but I am forever using dried spices/herbs. So do that if you don't have fresh.
2) We don't really measure stuff.
3) We prefer steam in bag veggies to fresh, because EASY.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp cooking oil or fat of choice (we usually use coconut or olive oil, or bacon fat) 
• 2-3 pounds of chicken, cubed/shredded and cooked 
• 1 bag of steam in bag frozen broccoli 
• 1 bag of steam in bag frozen cauliflower 
• 1 cup baby bella sliced/chopped mushrooms 
• 3 pieces of bacon cooked and crumbled into pieces 
• 1 can full fat coconut milk (or just coconut cream) 
• 2 tbsp minced garlic 
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil (or a couple of leaves fresh if you have them)
• 1 tbsp dried/fresh parsley 
• some sea salt 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º.
2. Cook the chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, bacon! Heat oil/fat in a large size skillet/pan on the stove over medium heat. If you haven't cooked your chicken yet, add it to the pan first with the 1 tbsp fat and salt. Once it's cooked thoroughly drain and set aside. Microwave your bacon, broccoli and cauliflower while chicken cooks.
3. Cook the mushrooms and combine everything in baking dish. In the skillet, add the last tbsp of fat and sauté the mushrooms. Once softened add the already steamed broccoli to the pan, careful not to add excess water. Add the chicken back to the pan, as well as the bacon pieces and thyme and basil. Sauté and combine for several minutes then add to a baking dish (8x11ish) careful not to add any liquid from the pan. 
4. Make the creamy cauliflower sauce! In a food processor (we splurged on this one for ourselves for Valentine's Day) add the cooked bag of steamed cauliflower (and any liquid that's in it) and the minced garlic. Puree until smooth (it will look kinda like mashed potatoes). Start with the cream from the canned coconut milk and add to the food processor. Add coconut milk as desired to make the sauce creamy. Creamy is good, but watery is not. Add up to an entire can of coconut milk, but we've had best results with half a can. Save the other half for a latte!
5. Add the sauce to the baking dish, garnish and bake! Spoon the cauliflower sauce over the broccoli, mushrooms + chicken. Sprinkle the top with parsley and bake at 375º for 30 minutes. 
6. Eat it up! Serve larger portions solo, or stretch it a little with a salad and a sweet potato. 

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