Curried Chicken Divan
Curried Chicken Divan Meets the Catholic Church
First things first — this is one of the first dishes I ever learned to cook, and I was quite proud of it. Even though it is very simple and almost a cooking cliché, I thought I was doing something when I produced “Curried Chicken Divan.” Unlike most divan recipes, this recipe calls for curry powder. And I have to admit that this dish caused me to fall in love with curry powder.
There are dozens of curries, each with its distinctive taste, texture, and kick. But for the most part the commercially available curry powder is just fine for my modest cooking skills.
Since this was a kind of “signature dish” for me in the early years of my cooking, it was an obvious choice for a little dinner party my ex and I were having for a group of friends. All of us were just out of college (well, for me it was graduate school) and the memory of school cafeteria food lingered wearily on our insulted taste buds. So, a dinner with Curried Chicken Divan, salad, and wine did seem elegant.
We enjoyed the evening immensely and ate with abandon, completely cleaning every scrap of the Curried Chicken Divan. Just as we started clearing the table one of the guests clapped her hands over her mouth and with wide eyes exclaimed, “It’s chicken! It’s Friday! It’s Lent!”
She was right! It was the first Friday of Lent—the Friday after Ash Wednesday, but it was a Friday; it was Lent, and we all had eaten chicken—a definite no-no for good Catholics.
“But chicken’s like fish; it’s okay, I’m pretty sure,” soothed another.
“No it’s not! Chicken’s like steak. You can’t eat chicken on a Friday in Lent any more than you can eat filet mignon,” explained another.
This conversation plodded on for a while. The entire table of good, but guilty, Catholics had eaten meat on a Friday in Lent. I, being Protestant, was exempt, but that certainly did not ameliorate the situation. I made the meal. I caused those good Catholics to sin! At least my renegade Protestantism wasn’t held against me since my soul was already in a precarious state.
The discussion continued and, in the end, it was decided that we would not speak of this to any priest and would not go to confession, since we all agreed that on that night and in that city and at this table, it would be okay to eat chicken on a Friday during Lent. After all it was the first Friday, and it takes a while to get used to the whole no-meat-on-Friday thing. It was an understandable lapse. So, a papal dispensation was declared without the benefit of the Pope. Alas, the Pope was none the wiser.
Chicken Divan
(Curried Chicken Divan)
Ingredients
1 bunch of broccoli; cooked, drained, and cut into bite size pieces (frozen or fresh)
½ c. cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1-2 cans of cream of chicken soup (or if you’ve got the time make your own)
½ c. mayonnaise
½ cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tbsp. curry powder
juice from one lemon
½ c. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
buttered bread crumbs
2 tbsp. butter
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange cooked broccoli in a greased 9x13-inch baking dish.
Place chicken on top of the broccoli. Combine soup, mayonnaise, yogurt, curry powder and lemon juice.
Pour the soup mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Dot with butter.
Bake for 30 minutes.
