Chicken à la King in Toast Cups

This week was fairly light on posting as life was busy with all the holiday action happening, so we'll get back to the regular weekend recap next Sunday. In the meantime, let's just get to what we prepared for dinner tonight... Chicken à la King in Toast Cups!

Toast cups you say? Yes! While fun for presentation, if you have little helpers around, this would certainly be a good way to get them involved! The cups are created by rolling out (or mushing down!) slices of whole wheat bread until they are fairly thin. Go ahead and cut the crusts off - the toughness in the crust will just work against you as you try to fit the flat pieces into the ramekins to form the cup shape. Just a few short minutes in the oven and there you go... cups made with toast!

Now that those have been made, we needed to make the creamy chicken filling to put in them. Starting with a base of diced carrots, celery, onion and red bell pepper, the vegetables were softened in a couple pats of butter and seasoned with fresh thyme for an herbal note. To tighten up the liquids, flour is added to the vegetables first and given a minute to cook - this process allows the raw taste to be cooked out beforehand. To keep it on the lighter side, chicken broth is used as the majority of the liquid needed - however, for just a bit of richness and to achieve that creamy edge, a cup of milk is also used. After a touch of vinegar to balance the filling, the filled pot is left to bubble until it has thickened enough that you can slide a line with your finger down the back of the spoon and that line stays clean.

Chunks of cooked chicken, along with a healthy handful of peas, are tossed in and left to simmer for just a few minutes to thoroughly heat through. Rather than pouring the mixture over a slab of toast, by ladling into the homemade cups to serve, we thought this was a fun and unique twist to this classic dish. Even though it was a bit lighter, the creamy sauce still had luscious body to it, along with a pleasant background thanks to the softened variety of generous diced vegetables added. The chicken and peas were just bonuses, adding to the filling and comforting nature to round out this meal.

Recipes
Chicken à la King in Toast Cups