Chicken Gruyère and Portabellini Mushroom Bake

Posted 2013-09-23 by Lindsay Law ⇒ follow

This is a savoury version of bread and butter pudding. It's great for using up eggs and bread, and while it's delicious with the nutty Gruyere, you could also also cheddar or another flavoursome hard cheese. It's a comforting supper dish that's perfect on cold autumn evenings.

The finished dish.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-35 minutes
Makes: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
6 eggs, beaten
450ml whole milk
200g thick sliced bread, crusts removed, cut into 2.5cm cubes
100g Gruyère, grated
20g fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 chicken breast fillets, cut into 2cm cubes
250g Portabellini mushrooms, thinly sliced

Some of the ingredients being prepared.

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Grease a 1.2 litre baking dish, or two smaller dishes if you don’t have one that fits.

Beat the eggs and milk together in a bowl, it will need to be large enough to fit all the other ingredients (the bread is quite bulky).

[Image2 Not very appetising, but it will be soon.]

Stir in the bread cubes, 75g of the Gruyere, the parsley and some freshly ground black pepper. Leave this mixture to stand while you prepare the chicken and the mushrooms.

Set aside while you prepare everything else

Heat half of the oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken cubes for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.

Theres quite a lot of oil to drain off.

Then heat the remainder of the oil and cook the mushrooms until they start to soften. This should take around 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and drain on a sheet of kitchen paper.

Test the mushrooms to check they are just soft.

Once drained, gently stir the chicken and mushrooms into the large mixing bowl containing the bread and egg mixture.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and then bake for 30-35 minutes. There should be no pink meat in the chicken, and the bake will be risen and golden.