This feeling of needing to bring food, to lend a hand or to just be there — I think we all feel that during momentous life changes, no? In Malaysia, we didn’t have any family to help out for the first week after Ge Ge was born, so one of our local friends brought by a pan of homemade enchiladas that we could just slide into the oven and reheat. We doled out those enchiladas as carefully and deliberately as if we were splitting shares of stock, making the pan last over three meals. To this day, I still feel grateful and lucky and loved to have had those enchiladas in the early days of parenthood (when I was sleep deprived, unshowered and basically a disheveled mess). It also helped that they were insanely delicious.

That’s why today I’m sharing a recipe for lemon chicken and broccoli casserole with sliced potatoes and flavored with Maille mustard. It’s the kind of dish that can be prepped in advance and gifted to a friend or family member in need. It’s a comforting, all-in-one meal, and when I made it for my family, they licked the pan clean.

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I set out to make this recipe the way I do for all of my dishes: I take stock of what I have in my kitchen, and how far I can get without having to make a special trip to the grocery store. I don’t ever meticulously plan recipes in advance, mostly because I just don’t have the time!  Instead, I rely on a trusty base of ingredients when crafting my shopping list, then add specialty items for specific dishes I want to try. Chicken breasts, broccoli, lemon and potatoes are almost always among my “base” ingredients. While I’m always testing recipes, I also need these basics to make some solid, go-to dishes that I know the kids will eat. I might use the chicken breasts for pulled barbecue chicken or fajitas. The broccoli usually gets sautéed with soy-marinated flank steak and served with rice or put into my classic broccoli quiche. Potatoes — well, we love potatoes around here, whether they’re made crunchy with duck fat or mashed with sour cream and butter. My point is this: sometimes you can make new dishes, like this lemon chicken and broccoli casserole, out of things that you might already have lying around in your kitchen.

This lemon chicken and broccoli casserole (which has potatoes layered in the bottom) was easy enough to prepare and pop in the oven, although it took me lots of time to figure out how to style and photograph it. As it turns out, casseroles don’t photograph all that well. There’s a rich sauce that can easily look gloopy, and because it comes out of the oven piping hot, the steam can cause a hazy effect while you’re trying to get a clear photograph. Also, there may or may not be small children yelling for their dinner and a husband cajoling you to finish taking photos already.

All was forgiven quickly enough, once I put down my camera and scooped out heaping platefuls to my hungry family. The tang of lemon and the zest of Maille mustard really made this casserole much brighter and flavorful than your typically creamy casserole dish, and the kids devoured the broccoli without a second look. I love using Maille mustard for dishes like these because the mustard has a nice, smooth consistency with a satisfyingly tangy flavor. I’ve also stood inside the Maille store in Paris and clapped my hands loudly as they dispensed their house-made mustard FROM A TAP.  Seriously, after the Eiffel Tower, the Maille mustard store should be like, your second stop on any trip to the City of Lights. Any country that can support an economy whereby gourmet mustard can be dispensed via tap is a country I want to live in one day.

Of course, once we all sat down for dinner, the hubby asked for an extra side of mustard to smear on top of his helping. There’s a phrase in my family that we use whenever someone asks for an extra condiment or another little something-something when eating dinner. We call it, just like they do on cereal boxes, a “serving suggestion.” In this case, the hubby’s serving suggestion was to smear extra mustard all over the place. I dutifully obliged, then tried it myself — and whaddya know? Extra mustard totally works!

For inspiration in creating this recipe, I referenced this Pinch of Yum creamy chicken quinoa casserole and this lemon chicken casserole with potatoes from Gimme Some Oven.

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