Broccoli Chicken Divan Casserole
Chicken Divan has traveled a long way for a dish built around chicken and broccoli.
Long before cans of condensed soup found their way into the casserole dish, Chicken Divan was served at the Divan Parisien restaurant inside New York City’s Hotel Chatham. The hotel stood near Vanderbilt Avenue and 48th Street in Manhattan, and its restaurant gave the dish its name. Chef Anthony Lagasi is the name most often credited with creating Chicken Divan by the early 1940s, serving sliced chicken breast and broccoli beneath a rich sauce made with cheese and cream.
In Lawton Mackall’s Knife and Fork in New York, published in 1949, the restaurant version was described as sliced chicken breast arranged over broccoli with a sherry-laced sauce of cheese and cream, then browned and served bubbling hot. The original recipe was closely guarded and apparently never published.
Then American home cooks got hold of the idea.
By the 1950s, versions made with condensed cream soup and mayonnaise were appearing in home kitchens, part of the postwar enthusiasm for casseroles that could turn cooked meat, vegetables, pantry staples, and cheese into supper in a single baking dish. Chicken Divan fit beautifully into that style of cooking. Leftover Sunday chicken could become Monday dinner, broccoli helped fill the pan, and a pot of rice could stretch the meal when several people needed feeding.
That home-kitchen version is the branch of the Chicken Divan family tree my casserole belongs to.
I make mine with cooked chicken and broccoli under a creamy sauce flavored with lemon and a small amount of curry powder, then cover the top generously with cheddar before it goes into the oven. The curry gives the sauce warmth and depth without overwhelming the chicken and broccoli. Lemon cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise, soup, and cheese. Both are small additions, but they matter.
Leftover roast chicken is especially useful here. I would much rather turn good cooked chicken into a proper second dinner than leave it waiting for a sandwich. The meat is already seasoned and cooked, which puts a hot casserole within easy reach on an evening when dinner needs to come together without much fuss.
Broccoli matters too. I want it tender enough to eat easily with the chicken while still holding its shape after baking. Broccoli cooked until it disappears into the sauce misses the point. There should still be recognizable pieces tucked beneath the creamy sauce and browned cheddar.
And then there is the rice.
A generous spoonful of Chicken Divan over hot white rice is how I like to serve it. The grains catch the creamy sauce that settles around the edges of the casserole and make the dish substantial enough for supper. A simple green salad alongside is plenty, though there are evenings when the casserole and rice are all I put on the table.
Chicken Divan belongs to an interesting category of American cooking: restaurant dishes that eventually became standards of the home kitchen. Somewhere between its Manhattan beginnings and the casserole dishes of mid-century America, the recipe was simplified, adapted, and passed from cook to cook. The cheese-and-cream sauce with sherry gave way in many households to condensed soup and mayonnaise. Cheddar appeared. Curry powder entered the picture.
Convenience became part of the dish’s identity.
That evolution says a great deal about American cooking. Recipes travel. They change with the decade, the grocery store, the ingredients available, and the needs of the person standing at the stove. A restaurant specialty from Manhattan can eventually become the chicken-and-broccoli casserole tucked into a family recipe box.
My Broccoli Chicken Divan Casserole comes from that later American tradition. It is creamy and savory, lightly brightened with lemon, gently seasoned with curry, and finished with enough cheddar to form those browned patches everyone wants from the top of the casserole.
There are versions made with homemade sauce and sherry that reach back toward the restaurant original. Mine belongs to the practical home-cooking years that followed, when a cook could look at leftover chicken in the refrigerator and turn it into dinner for the whole table.
That is part of the American story of Chicken Divan too.
Until next time, thank you for spending a little time with me. I hope you find a recipe to make, a story to enjoy, and something new to take into the kitchen. ♥️
Broccoli Chicken Divan Casserole
PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES
Cook Time: 35 minutes
OVEN TEMPERATURE: 350°F
SERVINGS: 8 servings
Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts, cooked and diced into cubes
2 heads of fresh broccoli, chopped and cooked (cook for about 2 - 2 1/2 minutes in microwave and drain)
1 family size can, 22.6 oz condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Prepared white rice for serving
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine, cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice, curry powder, salt and pepper. Mix together and set aside.
- Place cooked broccoli in your favorite 13x9-in. casserole dish, sprinkle a little bit of shredded cheese over the broccoli. Layer with cooked chicken, and sprinkle with a little more cheese. Pour cream of chicken soup mixture over the top, and finish by covering with the remaining cheddar cheese.
- Bake uncovered at 350° F for 25-35 minutes or until bubbling. Serve over rice. Enjoy!
about the AUTHOr
Stasia Boschetti is an American culinary writer and the founder of American Country Living. With more than thirty years of experience in the kitchen, a background in catering, extensive travel, and a strong knowledge of regional food traditions, she writes about the recipes, histories, and customs that have shaped the way America cooks. She lives in the United States with her husband, family, and rescue animals.
