Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole - Conquer the Crave

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe.

Servings: Serves 6 minimum

Ingredients:

1 cup of orichetti (dry) pasta. Cook the pasta 10 minutes in boiling water and drain.
3 chicken breast halves.
4 cups of broccoli heads cut into bite sized pieces
½ tsp of grated sea salt
½ tsp of pepper
8 oz of cream cheese
12 oz of grated cheddar cheese (divided)
1 cup of hot water
15 oz can of diced tomatoes with garlic (find a brand with no added sugar. You can use fresh tomatoes and add your own garlic if you choose)
paprika to sprinkle
optional dusting of cayenne

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9″ x 13″ oven proof pan spread the pasta in the bottom.

Poach your chicken. Do this by covering the chicken with water in a sauté pan. Turn the pan on to mild boil and cook the chicken 15 minutes or until there’s no pink left in the chicken. Shred the chicken. Do this by holding the chicken breast down on a cutting board with a fork and pulling at the chicken with another fork.

Spread the broccoli and the chicken over the pasta.

Season with salt and pepper.

In a sauce pan add the cream cheese and 8 oz of the grated cheddar with the hot water. Cook on medium to melt the cheeses and make a sauce. Add the canned tomatoes. Stir and then pour this over the chicken, pasta and broccoli. Take a fork and sort of swirl some of the sauce around the veggies and meat. You don’t have to stir it up; just mush it around.

Put in your oven at 350 and bake for 20 minutes. Then scatter the rest of the cheddar over the casserole. Dust with a light dusting of paprika and if you want a bit of zip dust lightly with cayenne. Bake 10 more minutes to melt the cheese.

Enjoy!

Cheers,