Curry Chicken Potato Au Gratin

Now that I'm off from school for the summer, I suddenly have a lot more time to fix dinner during the week. We've been experimenting a lot with gratins (what I consider a baked cheesy casserole) so now that we had potatoes from the farm we wanted to try a basic potato au gratin. I was also making curried chicken tenders, so I decided to combine the two and create our main entree. Now I'm sure the combination sounds a bit odd, but Joe is great with adding curry to meat, so I decided to try. I knew that chicken, potatoes, and cheese would work well together so I hoped the curry would just add more flavor.

Before cooking the chicken, I marinated it in a mixture of salt, olive oil, and curry powder. I let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes before sautéing it for about 2-3 minutes per side. It's ok if the chicken is completely cooked since it will have time to cook in the oven.

Curry Chicken Potato Au Gratin
1 lb. cooked curry chicken tenders (cut in to cubes)
6-8 sliced potatoes (make sure to make the slices uniform so they cook at the same rate)

1/2 c. chopped onions
1 tbsp. flour
2 c. milk
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground mustard
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Layer the potatoes in a casserole dish. I used a deeper small casserole dish and regretted it. Next time I would use a bigger, shallow baking dish. Cook the onion in the butter until softened. Add mustard, flour, salt, and pepper. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Take it off the heat and add milk and cheese. Put back on the heat and stir until boiling. Boil for another minute. Pour the cheese sauce over the potatoes and put in the oven, uncovered. Bake the casserole for 1 hour 15 min. to 1 hour 30 minutes.

I really enjoyed the addition of the chicken to the dish. I definitely have a soft spot for one-pot meals (something I inherited from my father). The curry flavor complemented the cheese, but next time I would add even more, probably to the cheese sauce. The potatoes cooked a bit unevenly since the dish was so deep, but next time that can be fixed by using a different pan. This would work well with any potato like vegetable (turnips, parsnips, possibly radishes). Don't be afraid to add a protein. I couldn't find a single recipe online that added chicken to a gratin but it turned out fine. Ham would be another good choice; my grandmother always made scalloped potatoes with ham. Cheers!