Chicken Brunch Bake

The week after my birthday and the world is opening — slowly, cautiously, the way you open a door when you're not sure what's on the other side. The school has announced full in-person instruction for the fall, which is six months away but which I am already anticipating with the particular eagerness of a woman who has spent a year teaching through a laptop and who needs, needs, the physical classroom — the chalkboard, the desks, the sound of a pencil on paper, the eye contact that is not possible through a screen because a screen is a wall pretending to be a window.

Hannah is two months old and developing the specific Feldman chin — the Feldman chin is a family landmark, a slightly prominent, slightly stubborn chin that appears on every Feldman descendant and which I first noticed on David at six weeks and on each grandchild in turn. Hannah has it. She is ours. The chin confirms it. Genetics is the original chain. The chin is the link. I told Jennifer and she said, "I was hoping she'd get my chin," and I said, "Nobody hopes for the Feldman chin. The Feldman chin happens to you." Jennifer laughed. I am growing to love Jennifer more with each child, which is not how I expected this to work but which is how it is working.

I made a spring vegetable frittata — asparagus, peas, fresh herbs, cheese — the first real spring cooking, the food that arrives when the farm stands reopen and the vegetables are tender and new and you can feel the season turning in the produce as clearly as you can feel it in the air. The frittata was light and green and tasted like the promise of warm months, which this year means more than warm months — it means reopening, it means grandchildren in my kitchen, it means Shabbat dinners with more than two at the table. The promise is enormous. The frittata contains it. Barely.

The frittata I described above — light, green, tasting of asparagus and new peas and the promise of warm months — led me eventually to this recipe, which is what happens when you want all the soul of that spring egg dish but you’re feeding more than two people and you need something that holds together when you carry it to the table. This Chicken Brunch Bake is what a frittata becomes when it knows a crowd is coming: eggs layered over tender chicken and vegetables, cheese melted through every bite, the whole thing warm and golden and ready to receive grandchildren. The Feldman chin approved.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded or diced
8 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray or butter for greasing the baking dish

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray or butter and set aside.
Sauté the vegetables. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook for 4–5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
Layer the filling. Spread the shredded chicken evenly across the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Scatter the sautéed vegetables and thawed peas over the chicken. Sprinkle the cheddar and mozzarella cheeses evenly over the top.
Whisk the egg mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, thyme, parsley, salt, and black pepper until fully combined and slightly frothy.
Pour and bake. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the layered chicken and vegetables. Transfer to the preheated oven and bake uncovered for 35–40 minutes, until the eggs are set in the center and the top is lightly golden.
Rest and serve. Let the bake rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve warm, directly from the dish, with fresh herbs scattered over the top if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken Brunch Bake — The Egg Dish That Holds the Promise of Spring