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Chicken & Green Olive Bake With Mixed Bean Salad

Two for the price of one this week. This recipe is an easy way to use up any leftover chicken from Sunday dinner. However, last week Paul, as he does, brought home a ready cooked chicken which he shredded and popped into the fridge so we could make wraps and sandwiches for lunches and suppers; both of which are a rare occurrence in this house; so I used that instead. A day later we had been to the local farm shop for our monthly meat shop and whilst there we bought some really nice green olives from the deli counter. After consuming our fill, along with a bottle of Chardonnay, we still had about a third of the punnet left over so I looked up recipes in which I could use the cooked chicken and green olives rather than having it all go off and lurk at the back of the fridge for weeks. I chose this one from Simple Italian Cooking because it really was simple and I could see how easily I could adapt it for the ingredients I wanted to use. Another advantage was that although I was using my air fryer it can just as easily be done in a conventional oven or on the stovetop. For a side dish I considered pasta; casarecci would be nice; or a nice a cannellini bean salad. Since we were having a minor heatwave I decided to serve the chicken with a mixed bean salad and lightly toasted sourdough bread. Yummy! Even though I halved the ingredients and swapped out the cannellini beans for mixed beans because the tin was smaller and more suited to just the two of us there was still plenty left over for my supper the following night. The leftover chicken bake has gone into the freezer ready for one of our lazy can’t be bothered to cook days. 

Chicken & Green Olive Bake

Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
  • 1 medium onion
  • ½ red pepper, finely diced
  • ½ green pepper, finely diced
  • 100g mushrooms, sliced
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 – 2 cups green olives, halved
  • 1 heaped tsp lazy garlic
  • 125 mls double cream
  • 2 tbs butter
  • 2 tbs olive oil
Method
  1. Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan.
  2. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
  3. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  4. Add the peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and cooked chicken.
  5. Stir to combine and season to taste.
  6. Bring to a simmer and pour into a baking dish.
  7. Pre-heat air fryer to 180ºC and bake for 25 minutes, stirring once.
  8. Remove  the dish from air fryer and stir in the cream and olives.
  9. Reduce the air fryer temperature to 165ºC, return the dish and bake for a further 10 minutes.
  10. 10.Serve with pasta, a salad or on it’s own with crusty bread.

Mixed Bean Salad

Ingredients
  • 1 tin mixed beans
  • 1 cup fresh tomatoes, diced
  • ½ cup roasted red pepper (from jar)
  • ¼ cup black olives (fresh or jarred)
  • 1 tsp lazy garlic
  • 1½ tbs olive oil
Method
  1. Rinse the beans and add to a bowl.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
  3. Serve and enjoy.
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