One Pan Paleo Chicken Divan Casserole :: Gluten, Grain, Dairy, & Egg Free!

2 tbsp butter ghee, or olive oil
1 medium onion diced
2 medium carrots peeled and diced
1 celery stalk diced
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp potato starch tapioca starch or arrowroot starch would work here too
2 tbsp nutritional yeast divided
3 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp pepper
2 cups full fat coconut milk
1 cup bone broth or water
3 medium yellow potatoes sliced thin into rounds (I don’t peel them, but you can)
3 chicken breasts cut into 2-inch cubes
1 ½ heads broccoli cut into florets about 5-6 cups
¼ - 1/3 cup almonds blended into a fine meal

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. You’ll need a large oven safe casserole dish or large cast iron skillet to cook with on the stove-top and then transfer to the oven. If you don’t have one, you can make the sauce in a skillet and transfer everything into your casserole dish when you are ready to bake.

Melt the butter in your large casserole dish over medium-high heat, and add the onion, carrot, and celery with a big pinch of sea salt. Cook over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes until the veggies soften.
Add the garlic, and cook for a minute.
Add the potato starch, 1 ½ tablespoons of nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, paprika, and pepper, and stir to coat the cooked veggies. Add the coconut milk and broth and stir until the sauce thickens. This takes a few minutes. Low simmer the sauce to allow the flavors to develop.
Taste the cream sauce and season to your liking. This cream sauce SHOULD taste like a very salty, condensed cream soup – it needs to be on the salty side because it will be seasoning and flavoring the unseasoned chicken and potatoes.

Turn the heat off the stove-top, and stir in the potato rounds, being sure that each of the potatoes are coated in the cream sauce.
Stir in the chicken breast cubes and broccoli next, coating everything in the cream sauce, and distributing everything evenly in the pan.

Place a lid on your casserole dish, and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
While the casserole is baking, blend up your almonds into a meal, put the almond meal into a small bowl, and stir in ½ tablespoon of nutritional yeast. This is your topping – set this aside for later.
After the casserole has baked for 30 minutes, take the lid off, sprinkle the almond/nutritional yeast topping, and put the casserole back in the oven for 15 more minutes without the lid.
After the casserole bakes the last 15 minutes, turn the broiler on high for up to 5 minutes to get the top nice and crispy and golden brown if you want too!

The Nutritional Yeast adds the "cheesy" flavor you are used to in a traditional chicken divan/casserole. You can leave it out, but you will want to season your cream sauce with a bit more sea salt.
If you have mushrooms around, I love adding them in with the carrots, onions, and celery part of making the sauce - I did not have them on hand the day I made this, but it does add an element of of the flavor you get from a can of mushroom cream sauce.
You can swap some of the broccoli for cauliflower or green beans for a change up!