Chicken and cauliflower cheese bake

Sometime you just throw together a recipe idea and it works out so well.  I had some leftover roast chicken and wanted to try something different, so tried a combination which ended up being a chicken and cauliflower cheese bake.  With a cheesy sauce, added vegetables, and a crunchy savoury crumble breadcrumb topping it’s really tasty.

Of course, new recipes don’t always go down well with everyone in the family. Despite everyone liking cauliflower cheese, chicken, and a kind of savoury crumble topping, there were still moans. Surprisingly N wasn’t keen. The OH moaned the cauliflower wasn’t cooked enough. Oops.

But I thought it was really delicious, and I’ll be trying to get them to eat it again in future.

If you like a cheese sauce, you can make it anyway you want (or buy a ready made one if you prefer).  I’m a lazy cheese sauce maker, and usually make it in the microwave rather than on the stove. It involves less stirring and attention if you’ve got a large enough jug or bowl.  You can find my cheese sauce microwave method over at my other post.

As with most of my recipes, you have flexibility over what you include.  I had leftover roast chicken, but it would also work well with leftover turkey.  

If you’ve got some bacon or pancetta you could fry that off and add it.

For veg, I usually include half slices of courgette with a cheese sauce. But you could add peas (which I meant to include, but forgot!), broccoli, spinach or other veg as you want.

The cauliflower needs a bit of parboiling first unless you’ve chopped it quite small.  I parboiled mine for 5 minutes, but it did need a little longer, maybe 7-8 minutes in total. 

If you only have raw chicken you can pan fry or air fry chunks of it while the cauliflower is cooking. This will give a bit of colour to the meat, and add some extra flavour. However poaching the chicken is also good – just simmer chicken breasts in water in a pan – add garlic, shallots, lemon or other veg to help flavour it – for 8 to 10 minutes until it’s cooked through.  However, you prep your chicken, just shred it or chop into pieces ready to include in the dish.

I usually have breadcrumbs in the freezer. But this time needed to blitz some bread to make some fresh. It’s not a problem to use shop bought, but you want chunkier ones like panko breadcrumbs, rather than the really fine ‘breadcrumbs’ like Bisto ones. Combining the breadcrumbs with grated parmesan gives a really nice flavoured topping.

Once you’ve got everything cooked off, shredded, and breadcrumbs ready, it’s just a case of combining the filling ingredients with the cheese sauce in an ovenproof dish.

Then top with the breadcrumbs mixed with cheese, and bake until hot through and the topping is lightly browning and getting a little crispy.

How to serve this chicken and cauliflower cheese bake

Green veg on the side are the perfect accompaniment – I went for tenderstem broccoli and peas. But a salad with some crusty bread goes really well, and if your family insist on potatoes then add some mash or boiled potatoes.

This is a simple but tasty recipe. And if you’ve already got cooked chicken (leftover roast chicken is perfect) it’ll cut down the timings to make as well.

Find the chicken and cauliflower cheese bake recipe below for the cheesy creamy sauce dish with a crispy breadcrumb topping.

Chicken and cauliflower cheese bake recipe

Serves 3-4
Prep 10 mins
Cook 40-50 mins

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts – cooked, then sliced
• ½ pack of pancetta or lardons
• ½ cauliflower, broken into florets
• Large handful of broccoli florets, optional
• ½ a courgette, sliced and then halved
• 1 stick celery – chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• Cheese sauce – try my microwave version or you can cook it on the stove to thicken it instead, just keep stirring
• 1 clove garlic, chopped (optional)
• sea salt
• freshly ground pepper
• Breadcrumbs – homemade or panko, I used 3-4 slices of bread whizzed into breadcrumbs, maybe half a pack of shop bought chunky ones.
• Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180C 

2. Parboil your cauliflower and broccoli florets (if using) in a saucepan of boiling water, for around 5 minutes until tender. Drain, then set aside the veg.

3. If you’ve only got raw chicken, cook slice/chop into chunks, then fry in a little oil in a saucepan until cooked through and lightly browned, set aside the chicken. (Alternatively air fry until just cooked through and lightly coloured).

4. In the pan, add a bit more oil, then fry the pancetta until cooked, adding in the shallots, courgette, celery and then the garlic to get a bit of colour.

5. Put the chicken and cauliflower mixture into the prepared baking dish and pour over the cheese sauce, mixing it around slightly to cover everything. Top with the grated parmesan and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs.

6. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Next, set the oven to broil and broil for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and browned in spots.