Before the stately Hotel Chatham (designed by Warren & Wetmore, the same firm behind Grand Central) was razed in 1966, Anthony Lagasi, chef at its Divan Parisien restaurant, forever changed the way Americans viewed chicken and broccoli. By the early 1940s, Lagasi had debuted a dish that bathed and baked the otherwise bland ingredients in a rich bechamel sauce, creating the casserole we now know as Chicken Divan. In Lawton Mackall’s Knife and Fork in New York (Doubleday & Company, 1949), chicken divan is described as a “runaway success dish year in, year out…sliced chicken breast on broccoli in a sherry-laced sauce of cheese and cream, browned and brought to table bubbling hot.” Although Divan Parisien’s original recipe was never divulged, the restaurant’s maître d’hôtel hinted that Lagasi used poached chicken. SAVEUR’s version, which is adapted from Crazy for Casseroles (The Harvard Common Press, 2003) by James Villas, sautés the poultry instead.
Featured in: “Cook a Swanky Steakhouse Dinner at Home with These Old-School Recipes,” by Anna Hirschorn and “The Age of Casseroles,” by Irene Sax in the December 2006 issue.
Yield: 4–6 Time: 1 hour 30 minutes 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1 large head broccoli (about 2 lb.), stemmed and broken into 1-in. florets 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
