Chicken and mushroom bake with crispy potatoes

This is the kind of dinner that comes out of a cupboard and a fridge drawer on a tired Tuesday. Chicken thighs, a bag of mixed mushrooms, an onion, and a stock cube's worth of flavour turn into something that feels like a proper pie without any pastry to roll out. The potatoes do the heavy lifting on top. Laid in two layers, some sink into the sauce while the rest sit up and catch the oven, so you get soft, savoury potato underneath and crisp edges on top.

Mushrooms are worth a second look in a dish like this. Most of them are mostly water, so when they hit a hot pan they shrink down quickly and release a lot of liquid. That is why the recipe cooks them on their own first. If you crowd them in with the chicken, they steam rather than brown, and you lose the deeper, meatier taste that makes this bake feel rich. Give them a few minutes to colour properly and the sauce will taste much fuller.

Cornflour is the quiet hero of the thickened sauce. Whisking it into a little cold stock before it goes in the pan stops it clumping into lumps, and a short simmer is all it needs to turn the liquid glossy. If you have ever had a sauce go gluey, that was usually cornflour dumped straight into hot liquid. Take the extra half minute to make the paste.

Leftovers keep well for up to two days in a sealed container in the fridge. The potato top softens, so if you want it crisp again, reheat portions in a hot oven or under a grill rather than in the microwave. Skip the microwave for the broccoli too, or it will go limp. The sauce can also be frozen before the potatoes go on, which is a handy trick for a batch you want to bake later from frozen, allowing extra time in the oven.

For the side, the broccoli that comes with the bake is plenty, but if you want something lighter on the plate, a crisp green salad with a sharp vinaigrette cuts through the richness nicely. Roasted Potato and Cauliflower Salad makes a good companion if you are feeding a crowd and want more of the same comfort in a cool, room-temperature form. A bowl of Curried Pumpkin and Apple Soup makes a warm starter if you are stretching the meal out on a cold evening. For something lighter in the same spirit, Grilled Chicken Salad with Ginger Raspberry Dressing keeps the chicken and greens but skips the potato.

Let the dish stand for those five minutes before you serve. It sounds fussy, but the sauce settles and the potatoes hold their shape, so the spoonful you scoop out looks as good as it tastes.