Chicken, Corn, and Green Chili Casserole

Today's dinner recipe comes from One Pot of the Day: 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year (Kate McMillan/Williams Sonoma, 2012).  I bought this last year and have only made a couple of the recipes.  I pulled it off the bookshelf last weekend and flipped through it, looking at all of the pages I bookmarked trying to remember which recipe on those pages was the one I wanted to make.  Most of the time it was obvious, but a few times I thought, "What was I thinking? I don't want to make any of these recipes."

The cookbook is organized chronologically.  There is one recipe for each day of the year.  June 16th is Chicken, Corn, and Green Chile Casserole.  The casserole is similar to a chicken pot pie but with corn and green chiles instead of mixed veggies and a cornbread-like topping instead of pie crust or a biscuit topping.  The sauce holding everything together is basically milk thickened with a little flour and seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper, onion, and garlic.

The completed dish turned out pretty well.  The filling was delicious.  Just a bit creamy with lots of chicken and corn.  The green chiles added some spice without being too hot, and combined well with the cumin.  The topping was just okay  It came out a little doughy even though I left the casserole in the oven for 30 minutes instead of 20.   The topping was just flour, cornmeal, baking powder, milk, and green onions.  I added 1/2 tsp of salt to the batter even though it didn't call for it because I thought it might end up being too bland.  I'm glad I did.  I think the topping would have been quite dull without it.  Adding just a bit of salt helped bring out the flavors.

I would definitely make this recipe again, but I think next time I'll change up the topping a bit.  I think using equal parts flour and cornmeal (the original recipe calls for 1 cup and 1/2 cup respectively) and maybe adding an egg will make the topping come out hardier and with more of a cornbread flavor.

I'm not thrilled with the photo, but the sun had gone down by the time the casserole was finished, and I had to rely on kitchen lighting and camera flash.