I started by kind of throwing it out there, in the holiday foods thread, that I was thinking about making a casserole with the leftover chicken. As I wrote it down, the notion turned more and more into a plan, which I got going in stages. The chicken was those honkin' big white pieces, thick sliced and shingled, with very little to no sauce on. I knew that wouldn't freeze well as is. I haven't made a casserole for years, to the best of my memory. Lasagna and enchiladas aside. Back when more of the company meals were at our house, I often made a casserole, strata, savory bread pudding or similar to use up large leftovers, for better or worse. This one was definitely for better! I made a few messy mistakes, but used a lot of stuff, and it tastes great!

First I made the chicken into cubes, and stirred it into about a pint and a half of cold, gelled chicken soup including the carrot chips and herbs, mixed with about half a cup combined of the two charosets from the table (#1: pecans with apples, hot cinnamon and concord grape wine; #2: orange, baby cucumber, raw baby carrot, cloves and sherry). The greasy/salty and boozy/sweet counteracted one another well. All mixed up with the chicken and a square of matzah, and covered, it sat some hours in the fridge to get acquainted.

There was a lot of the sprouted broccoli (a green vegetable, not "sprouts") with garlic and almond slices left. They were awkward to serve, so a lot left over, but were delicious. I cut up about half, nuts and all, plus the shaved fennel garnish which was kind of awful, but cut and cooked in the casserole would be fine. then stirred them into the chicken. Seemed good.

I didn't want to do a cheese topping, and matzah topping wasn't calling either, but I was thinking of binding the casserole with eggs, and then thought of béchamel, and then thought of the béchamel with eggs they put on the top of moussaka and other such things. But binding and topping? Why not! I looked up recipes. The egg yolks are just added to the regular béchamel. Easy enough.

While I was reading, I found a moussaka maker who was positive about putting potatoes in the bottom. My Greek friend pooh-poohed potatoes as an extender that marked people as poor, but the bloggist liked potatoes for "rounding out the meal" and adding to structure. And I was making a "casserole",, which traditionally has a starch layer on the bottom, not a strata. So I decided to put what was left of the scalloped root vegetables to line the bottom of the dish. The scallop sauce was egg/oil based, so the root slices were nicely stuck together, but I was able to pull it apart enough to patch across the whole bottom. Score! It would all have been eaten up as is, but starch on the bottom, check!

For the béchamel, I decided to measure (the "flour" was half matzah cake meal and half potato starch), instead of eyeballing, because I didn't want to risk the eggs breaking the sauce. (That worked.) I got impatient, though, and the ingredients weren't fully up to room temperature. (It still worked...I just kept whisking) I also thought I needed some thin sauce for the binding but super thick for the topping, so I just made one pot with a quart of milk's worth, with a little extra "flour" because it needed more body. Then I removed a couple ladlesful, mixed in the eggwhites, and poured the result into the casserole as I was layering in the chicken mixture. I added the yolks to the rest, but lost track of what I was doing, since I'd added the extra thickening, and started to pour it on before reducing it. So I used the handle of a thin table fork to make drain wholes, and put the rest back on the heat to reduce properly. I'm sure the extra sauce inside helped the chicken mix anyway, and there was enough thickened to cover, even if only thinly. It came out fine, though seasoning it twice was insufficient. Or perhaps it's just that there's SO much flavor in the chicken mixture that the topping seems bland by comparison. If you eat them together you don't notice.

I didn't adjust anything but the béchamel! All the different sauces and ingredients came together beautifully! The texture is great! The neglected sprouted broccoli, (which is literally matchstick in diameter but long, and is is not "sprouts" like you put in salad) made the flavor and texture really good, and I stopped adding more at the right time. I can't believe how well this worked! Of course, a lot of it will be portioned and frozen for when it seems like a treat rather than leftovers. :)

Sometimes, it helps to be crazy!