How to create an amazing creamed chicken

Creamed chicken is a comfort food. It is rich and decadent and depending on what you add to it can be a very healthy choice. In the fall and winter it is the perfect dish to wow your mother in law or pamper your significant other. It is also a great way to use any leftover chicken you may have lying around. After Thanksgiving turkey will work very well in all of these recipes.

This recipe serves four:

2 cups of cooked chicken diced
2 cups white sauce *
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mushroom caps, sauteed in two teaspoons of butter

Poach four single chicken breasts in 2 cups chicken broth. Poach them until cooked well through about fifteen minutes. Cut into small pieces.

*Make a white sauce. Melt four tablespoons of butter in a small fry pan, add four tablespoons of flour and make roux. Add two cups of milk (you can use low fat milk) to the roux slowly, stir constantly until smooth. Add salt and pepper and celery salt.

Saute the mushroom caps. Add the chicken to the sauce then add the mushrooms.

Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots or glazed carrots. It is a heart warming recipe.

This recipe is extremely versatile. Small changes to the basic recipe produce a very different tasting meal.

1. Add two cup chicken stock in place of milk in the white sauce and it becomes a sauce veloute.
2. Place the creamed chicken in a casserole and sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs (for extra crunch add panko crumbs) and bake in a three hundred fifty degree oven for 25 minutes or until the crumbs are golden brown
3. Add 1 teaspoon curry powder to the white sauce and serve the creamed chicken with basmati rice
4. Add 1/2 cup of diced ham and steamed broccoli and omit the mushrooms
5. Add one cup cheddar cheese for cheesy creamed chicken
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg to the roux and serve the sauce over linguine

Creamed chicken is an easy and hearty meal that will please every member of the family. Even the pickiest of eaters will be won over by this smooth dish. On a cold fall or winter day nothing warms the heart and the body more than a rich and delicious chicken dish.