Chicken, Asiago, Pastitsio Leftovers

It’s dinner time and I have a fridge full of leftovers.  I hate (dislike) leftovers.  They are okay for lunch, but not for dinner.  In my head, dinner requires its own meal.  So what do I do?  I make something.  What do I have?  I have boiled chicken breast, milk, eggs, cheeses, noodles, onions and flour.  Now my dad would have made Chicken a la King with these ingredients.  That’s what we would eat when I was a kid.  And I was thinking of doing the same.  But I don’t know how to make Chicken a la King.  I know how to make Pastitsio.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastitsio  So this is what I do:

 

·         I start boiling the water for the elbow macaroni and set the oven to preheat at 350 degrees.

·         I chop and sauté Vidalia onions.

·         I chop the chicken breast and put it in a bowl.

·         I find another pot and melt a stick of butter.

·         I put the elbow macaroni in the pot with the (salted) boiling water- I salt the water after it starts to boil.

·         I pull out a medium sized bowl and add 1 maybe 1/2 cup crumbled feta, 1 maybe 1/2 cup shredded asiago, and 1 maybe 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. 

·         I pause to find my recipe for Pastitsio so I don’t ruin the crème sauce. (And this is when I should have just stopped for a moment till the macaroni was finished and drained.  But I didn’t and my crème sauce, professionally known as béchamel, cooked too much and was too thick.  But anyway…)

·         With cookbook open to correct page… I add 8T flour (one tablespoon at a time) and whisk into the butter.

·         When the butter/flour is smooth and turns brown, I slowly add 4 cups of warmed (from the microwave) milk.  We had fat free in the fridge.  You have to stir it over a med heat till it thickens.

·         I then add 4 eggs.  The recipe calls for 4 eggs or 6 egg yolks.  To be honest I didn’t want to mess with leftover egg whites (maybe because I don’t like leftovers) so I used the whole egg.  Keep stirring over a LOW heat till thick.  Now you can add salt and pepper.   

·         At this point, add the chicken to the translucent onion and season.  This time I chose to use a shake or two of ground turmeric, ground garlic and salt.

·         Now assemble.  In a large buttered casserole dish, add:               

o   ½ the macaroni

o   1/3 of the crème sauce

o   spread out the chicken mixture

o   then the cheese mixture

o   the rest of the macaroni

o   and the rest of the crème sauce.

·         Put in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes.  This is a good time to clean the pots and bowls, then with a clean kitchen you can enjoy your dinner. 

This dish is great because after it’s done cooking  it retains the heat for a while after you take it out of the oven… so if your salad isn’t ready or the table isn’t set yet, you still have time before you serve.