Chicken Cottage Pie

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Chit Chat Chomp, an amazing blog written by Leigh who lives in Melbourne, Australia.  Her blog is full of amazing recipes and gorgeous photos of all of them.  Leigh calls herself an amateur photographer, but they look pretty professional to me!  I wanted to try everything on her blog.  Once again I started making a list:

• Chili Chicken with Hummus
• Asparagus Tart 
• Cranberry and Chocolate Biscuits - because, of course, I'm drawn to anything cranberry
• Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins w/ Crumb Topping - apples in the topping!
• Dark Chocolate and Orange Muffins

And there were many more!

Of course, since Leigh is a child of English parents who lives in Australia, I needed to convert some of the measurements.  How much is 160g flour? I admit, I've let something like that keep me from trying some of the recipes I've found online, but this time I looked up some recipe conversions.  (Well, that was simple!)

Chicken Cottage Pie

adapted from Chit Chat Chomp 

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut in chunks (about 8 oz.)
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• fresh spinach (I didn't measure)
• 1 T dried parsley
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup sweet corn (frozen or canned)
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche (I used sour cream)
• 2 T butter

Directions:

1. Boil potatoes in lightly salted water until tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large fry pan and cook onion and chicken over a medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes, until the onion is soft and the chicken is starting to brown.  Add the mushrooms and spinach and cook until spinach starts to wilt.  Season with dried parsley and salt & pepper.
3. Pour in the stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.  Stir in the corn and sour cream.  Season with additional salt & pepper if needed.
4. When potatoes are cooked, drain and mash them with the butter (or extra sour cream or creme fraiche) Season with salt and pepper.
5. Heat oven to 400° F.  Spoon the chicken mixture into a medium baking dish; top with the mashed potatoes, sprinkle with a bit of additional parsley, and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

The chicken and corn mixture was soupier than I was expecting when I put it in the baking dish, and the potatoes were quite thick on top.  Then, the oven worked its magic, and they baked together into this perfectly creamy delicious dish that my husband and I both loved.

When I decided to make this particular recipe, I had to look up Cottage Pie, too. Leigh says this is not the sort of cottage pie her mum would make, which would be "an Irish or British meat pie cooked with beef mince and has a crust made from mashed potato" - and certainly not chicken.  Or corn.  Well, this one has both, and I added some mushrooms and spinach too, just because, and it is yummy.  Definitely comfort food.

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