BBQ and Blue Chicken Sammies with Baked Potato Casserole

Aunt Keri's Kitchen selection is doing double duty this week, as I prep to go out of town and visit my smushy little nephew Vaughn, and my Sissy and BIL, of course. So along with my family-style dishes for my beautiful new honorary niece's fam, I also made individual portions to stick in our fridge for The Hub to reheat while I am away. (Aren't I a nice wife?)

I crock potted a whole chicken (bone in) overnight in a mix of chicken broth and pre-mixed poultry seasoning that covered roughly 1/3 of the chicken, and allowed it to cool before shredding the chicken off the bone and combining it with some cheapy store brand BBQ sauce (enough to coat the shredded chicken thoroughly) and 1 teaspoon of Tabasco for a little extra spice.

While I was shredding the chicken, I was boiling some diced potatoes (about 2 lbs) until tender in a pot of well-salted water. I drained the potatoes and added 1/2 cup of milk and half a stick of butter (I just finished reading Julie and Julia, so I am pretty heavy-handed with butter lately).
Now some folks are dead-set against whipped potatoes, but I like my "mashed" potatoes smooth and fluffy - besides, baking them in the casserole stiffens them up a bit, so it all evens out here. I used my trusty hand mixer (no Cuisinart devotee here, sorry!) to whip the potatoes to a light and fluffy consistency.

I filled a disposable/reusable baking dish with about 2/3 of the potatoes (reserving the rest for use at home) and mixed in to the dish 1 and 1/2 cups broccoli florets chopped very small. Over the top I spread 3/4 cup cheddar cheese. The whole thing gets baked in a 325 degree oven for 20 minutes or so when they are ready to eat it.

For The Hub's version, I substituted the broccoli for turkey bacon pieces and put it in a ramekin for easy heating.

I also packed some of the chicken into a container for him to eat, as he is not a fan of BBQ sammies, so he will eat it as is.
For the fabulous growing fam, I packed the chicken, potato casserole, and buns, along with a spread I made by mixing blue cheese with some olive oil mayo to spread on the sammies (YUM!).

They got a plate of the brownies I made yesterday, and voila, two birds with one stone for Ker.