So, you know how sometimes you have a plan for dinner, and you start cooking and realize you're actually missing half your ingredients? Ya, I'm super-organized like that. Oh well, some of my best meals have come from substituting ingredients.
I had some leftover meat from the chicken I made earlier in the week, and I had boiled 2 or 3 pounds of potato chunks as a side dish, so I thought a modified Shepherd's Pie might be really interesting. A standard Shepherd's Pie is made with a ground beef or lamb filling that may have some small vegetables mixed in, then topped with a thick layer of mashed potatoes and browned in the oven. Check out this Alton Brown recipe if you'd like to get an idea. (I haven't tried it, but Alton Brown is awesome.)
Parts of this recipe are pretty vague, because several of the ingredients are whatever I had on hand, making it up as I go, and the recipe is actually fairly flexible. Check out my notes following the recipe for a bit more on this.
Gratuitous Melted Cheese Shot
Shepherd's Pie, The Chicken Version
Cooked chicken, about 2 C, chopped
1 leek, stem only, sliced into rounds OR 1 onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, cleaned or peeled and sliced
1 C frozen peas
1 packet mushroom & onion dry soup mix
*optional filling ingredients*
Mashed potatoes, made your favorite way, enough to cover the surface of whatever you decide to bake this in
Orange cheese (Cheddar, Colby, etc), I'd guess 1-2 C
Turn your oven to 400 F before starting the filling.
Heat a large skillet or medium saucepan with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil. If you're using onion, you'll want to sauté that for a few minutes before adding anything else. Saute the leek, if using, and the carrots until the leek softens, about 5 minutes. Then add the peas, soup mix, and 2 C water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium and continue stirring for a few minutes while the soup thickens. Remove the pan from heat, stir in the chicken, and pour into a casserole dish or baking pan.
Spread the mashed potato on top of the filling. My filling was a little saucy, so "spreading" the potatoes consisted of dropping spoonsful on top and trying to smear them together. Sprinkle cheese on top of the potatoes until you're happy with the coverage. I went a little heavy because my husband's favorite food is cheese. Put in the oven for at least 20 minutes, until the cheese looks good. Mine took closer to 35 minutes, because I like nicely browned.
Serves 3-6, depending on your serving size and what you add to the filling.
*When I mixed the filling ingredients, it didn't seem big enough to me. I probably should have added more vegetables, but I really wanted to add some white beans or lentils. I didn't have either of those, so I ended up throwing in 1/4 quinoa and an extra 1/2 C water. It was really good, and I probably could have doubled the amount of quinoa.
*By the way, did you know you don't always have to peel your vegetables? It's largely a preference thing. I rarely peel my carrots or potatoes, even when I plan to mash the potatoes. I just run both under water in the kitchen sink while scrubbing them with a brush to get off the dirt. If there is a deep crack in the carrot or part of the potato looks funny, I'll break out a knife and remove the offensive part.
Don't be afraid to experiment when you cook. If you're not sure about adding something, just start with a little, you can always add more. This is especially true with spices and salt. They can easily get too heavy, but it's not hard to add more until your food tastes just right.
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