Comfort Food - Leftover Roast Chicken Casserole with Rosti Topping

The first frost came down last night. When I got in the car this morning my windscreen wipers made a slight crunch and my electric windows were frosted shut. Small things, but they tell me the weather's on the turn. Fiance and I may have resisted putting the heating on as yet but we have had the fire on for the past couple of nights and even with the HUGE quilt on the bed it's more than a bit nippy when you get an unexpected draft in the night.

So I'm turning my mind firmly away from healthy summer salads now and on to comforting, hearty food with plenty of stodge value. We often indulge in a proper Sunday roast chicken around this time of year (though, perversely, more often on a Monday night instead) and with two cats in the house I can never leave a half carved bird on the counter even for the length of time it would take to eat the meal in front of us! So I've become adept at stripping the bird down to bare bones before the gravy's even had a chance to thicken and chucking whatever doesn't get served up that night into a kitten-proof pot. These leftovers get used in various ways, but the firm favourite is in this simple but oh so moreish casserole recipe. We usually get about 5 servings out of a medium sized chicken, 2 from the original roast plus 3 from the leftovers, which makes the whole process pretty thrifty:

Serves two (plus a small helping for lunch the next day)

You will need:

• The leftover meat from a roast chicken plus the juices from the roasting dish (strain off the fat if you're feeling virtuous)
• 2 onions peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 carrots peeled and chopped into disks
• A handful each of frozen peas and sweetcorn or whatever other veg is lying around
• 1 veg stock cube or a couple of tsp Bullion powder

For the Rosti topping:

• 3 to 4 medium potatoes, roughly grated
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Large pinch of rock salt and generous grinding of black pepper
• A small handful of grated cheese (blue cheese or nice strong cheddar work perfectly, though I have made it with feta and cream cheese before and both were very tasty)

1. Combine the chicken and juices, veg and stock in an oven proof, lidded casserole dish and season if desired.
2. Squeeze the excess liquid out of the grated potatoes then combine with the other topping ingredients, spread evenly over the chicken and veg and pat down gently
3. Bang it in the oven on gas mark 7 (220C, 425F) for 45 minutes to an hour with the lid on, then remove the lid and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes untill the surface of the potatoes is golden and slightly crispy

It really is the simplest of recipes (you can prep it in less than 20 minutes which makes it perfect for after work) but naturally tasty from having cooked in the meat juices. The potato topping works amazingly with any number of other casseroles, I'm thinking of trying it on top of poached fish next for an alternative to fish pie, and it made Fiance happy dispite his man flu so that's a winner in my book!