Chicken, Avocado, Spaghetti And Cheese Sauce Bake

Charishma_Ramchandani's Note:

From last week's Weekend magazine.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 cups boiled spaghetti
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts , halved
• ¼ cup seasoned flour
• 3 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup white grape juice , unsweetened
• 1 small avocado , peeled,stoned and chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ¼ cup chicken stock
• 1 cup small broccoli floret , lightly steamed

For the Cheese sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• salt and pepper
• 1 ½ cups cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup grated cheese slice
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ cup celery , finely chopped

Directions:

1. Lightly coat chicken with seasoned flour and brown in butter.
2. Pour grape juice and stock over it.
3. Cover.
4. Cook on low flame until tender.
5. Set aside to cool slightly.
6. Slice chicken into strips.
7. Slice avocado and apply lemon juice over it to prevent it from discolouring.
8. For the Cheese sauce: Melt butter.
9. Add flour, salt and pepper.
10. Stir.
11. Cook for 2 minutes.
12. Remove from heat.
13. Gradually stir in the cream and milk.
14. Heat the mixture again.
15. Bring it to a boil.
16. Stir continuously.
17. Remove from flame.
18. Add cheese.
19. Stir until cheese melts.
20. Keep aside 3/4 cup of cheese sauce.
21. Mix the remaining sauce and broccoli with the cooked spaghetti.
22. Arrange the sliced chicken pieces on a lightly greased oven-proof dish.
23. Spread the spaghetti mixture over the chicken.
24. Arrange avocado over this.
25. Sprinkle chopped celery over this.
26. Top with the remaining cheese sauce.
27. Sprinkle allspice powder over it.
28. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.
29. Serve hot.

Reviews

[Shazzie]

I really loved this dish. It is what I would term 'comfort food'. Due to my personal preference, I omitted the celery and added more avocado. The broccoli adds a lovely dimension to this dish. I thought the amount of cream called for would be a little too rich so I substituted 1/2 cup of the cream with whole milk - the result was pleasantly creamy enough. The sauce also looked too thin to me so I added some cornflour paste at the end to thicken. Next time I will use 3 Tbsp of flour instead of 2 - as there will definitely be a next time!! Lovely - thank you!