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Cottage Pie?

I've recently learned that Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb - well duh - now that makes sense. I guess I never really gave it much thought. Cottage pie is made with beef. I made this with ground chicken and threw a total curve ball and used sweet potatoes.  So I'm not entirely sure what this actually should be called? I think I'm still going to call it Cottage Pie.

So I was getting all ready for Thanksgiving and I got carried away making the candied sweet potatoes. I had 3 extras sweet potatoes - what was I going to do with them? They were extra large too. So I thought they would make a nice topping for some ground chicken.

Cottage Pie

2 large sweet potatoes, baked or steamed
1/2 milk, may need additional
2T butter

1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, cubed
olive oil
1 t thyme
1/2 t sage
1 lb ground chicken
1 c chicken stock
1t Worcestershire sauce
2T flour - preferably Wondra
salt/pepper
1t smokey paprika

You can either bake or steam the sweet potatoes (or boil them for that matter). Add milk and butter and mash until a smooth consistency. Add some salt/pepper. Set aside.

In a large skillet (I was lazy and used a cast iron so I could pop it right into the oven. Sometimes I can be so all about not using a million dishes/utensils) add onions, carrots and about 1 T olive oil. Add thyme, sage and salt/pepper. Saute until the onions start to caramelize and carrots start to get a little tender - about 15 minutes. Add ground chicken. Saute until the chicken starts to look done. Remove sage leaves and thyme sprigs. Stir in flour and cook for a few seconds. Gradually add chicken stock and Worcestershire sauce. Saute until the stock starts to thicken.

If you didn't use an oven-proof skillet now is the time to put the chicken into a buttered casserole dish. Spread mashed sweet potatoes over the chicken. Sprinkle with smokey paprika. Bake in 350 oven for about 15-20 minutes or until heated through. If you want you can throw it under the broiler for a few minutes to get the sweet potatoes a little browned.

Since I had such large sweet potatoes (and 3 of them), I had a lot covering the chicken - it might have been overkill but it was still pretty tasty. This would make a nice dish with left over turkey - don't even ask me what that's called!

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