Carmel's Kitchen: Chicken Shepherd's Pie (you've to be kidding me)

I made my first Chicken Shepherds Pie for a potluck. I'll admit I was very apprehensive about it. Chicken Shepherd's Pie didn't sound right. Most of my pals also thought so. Afterall, I've always made them with either beef or lamb and would include bacon bits in it for that extra oomph. Plus chicken is really quite a flat tasting meat.

Why chicken then? Well I needed a neutral dish for my pals at the potluck who were one of the following:

(a) Muslims (pork is OUT)

(b) Hindu (beef is OUT)

(c) don't eat 4 legged animals (lamb is OUT)

I apologise that I forgot to make a small pan of vegetarian for my vegetarian pals like Krish (I'll make up to you one of these days).

Ingredients for an easy peasie Chicken Shepherd's Pie:

• 500g of chicken breast

• 1 can of button mushroom (approximately 420g)

• 2 sticks of celery

• 1 large carrots

• 1 large onion

• 500g of potatoes

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/2 cup chicken broth (I normally keep lil bags of these in my fridge so I don't have to waste extra time making these)

• 250ml of cream

• 120g of grated cheddar cheese

• 120ml of fresh milk

• Olive oil

• Garlic butter

• 1 tablespoon of Worcester sauce

• Pepper & Italian Spice for seasoning

Instructions:

(1) Steam or boil the potatoes. I prefer to steam them to retain the flavour and juices.

(2) While waiting for the potatoes to be ready, I slice the chicken and marinate it with 1 table spoon of Worcester sauce and a dash of pepper plus Italian spice.

(3) Dice the carrots, celery and onions.

(4) Saute bay leaf, carrots, celery, mushroom and onions in the garlic butter. Add pepper and Italian spice to your liking.

(5) While waiting for the items in (4) to cook, mash the potatoes and stir in milk. Add pepper to taste. Mix in grated cheddar cheese.

(6) Once the carrots have soften, add in the chicken.

(7) Lightly brown the chicken to seal in the juice.

(8) Pour in the cream. Add the chicken broth so that the cream envelopes the chicken, carrots, celery, onion and mushrooms.

(9) Place mixture (8) into baking dish.

(10) Distribute mashed potatoes on the top.

(11) Use fork to rough up the top of the mashed potatoes so that they can brown at certain peaks for some added "crunch".

(13) Bake in oven at 150C for 20 minutes or until the creamy mixture of chicken boils and the mashed potatoes brown a little.

I've added cheddar cheese into the mashed potato for some added flavour. And if you're adventurous, you may want to use Mozzarella to top the mashed potatoes for more extra zing (I wasn't too sure how adventurous my white mice pals were at the potluck so I omitted the Mozzarella).

Bon Appetit:D

-----> I think it tasted OK that night although I still prefer the ground beef version:D