Irish Chicken Colcannon Cottage Pie for Two

This hearty cottage pie recipe for two is a hot, healthy, comforting dish. It’s a mixture of simple flavors and colors that tastes so cozy, starting with leftover shredded chicken in a nice garlic herb chicken gravy with onion, celery, carrots, peas, brussels sprouts and a bit of sweet pepper, then topped with Irish mashed potatoes (a.k.a., colcannon) and Irish cheddar cheese.

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, and each March, I always try to find a new Irish recipe to share with you. Everyone else seems to be reveling in corned beef and cabbage and I’ve totally done that, too, but I wanted to try something different. And hey, also did you know, this “corned beef and cabbage” thing that most Americans eat on St. Patty’s day is actually not what they’d be eating in Ireland?

Is Corned Beef and Cabbage even Irish?

Corned beef and cabbage is definitely delicious, but I always wondered about this, so years ago I went looking and discovered that the way we celebrate St. Patty’s Day in America with all the corned beef and cabbage and green-tinted beer is not at all how they’d celebrate in Ireland. The Smithsonian explains: “It’s hard to think of St. Patrick’s Day without glittered shamrocks, green beer, leprechauns, and of course, corned beef and cabbage. Yet, if you went to Ireland on St. Paddy’s Day, you would not find any of these things except maybe the glittered shamrocks. To begin with, leprechauns are not jolly, friendly cereal box characters, but mischievous nasty little fellows. And, just as much as the Irish would not pollute their beer with green dye, they would not eat corned beef, especially on St. Patrick’s Day. So why around the world, especially in the US, is corned beef and cabbage synonymous with St. Paddy’s Day?”

II found it really interesting to learn that people used cattle in Ireland historically not for their meat, but rather for working the fields and for producing milk and other dairy products. In Gaelic Ireland, people revered cows as a symbol of wealth and a sacred animal. Because of that, they only killed cows for their meat if they were too old to work or produce milk.

There is an interesting twist to the story … the Irish did eventually end up MAKING corned beef, but they didn’t actually get to EAT it. I’ll leave it to you to go read the article for the rest of that story.

But I”m dying to tell you about this colcannon cottage pie, so let’s go back to that, shall we?

THIS is Authentically Irish: Colcannon

Colcannon is a VERY Irish dish made of potatoes and cabbage or kale, often including bacon and/or bacon fat. This iconic Irish dish is comforting, delightful and very definitely authentically Irish. The word colcannon is from the Gaelic term “cal ceannann” which means white-headed cabbage, but it may also be derived from the old Irish “cainnenin” translated as garlic, onion, or leek. Strangely enough, while Americans frequently serve colcannon to celebrate St. Patty’s Day, the Irish do consider it a holiday dish, but they serve it at Halloween festivities, not for St. Patty’s Day.

Still, I always think of Irish food in mid-March, so this is when I tend to make colcannon, although it has also found its way to the table at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter as well in our house. Colcannon has surely stolen my heart and I’ve shared multiple versions of Colcannon over the years and the Colcannon song ALWAYS starts playing in my head whenever I think of it. Come March, I can’t wait to make Colcannon!

What’s a Cottage Pie?

Cottage Pie is a traditional Irish or British dish consisting of a mixture of meat and vegetables in gravy, topped with mashed potatoes. Cottage pie is similar to its cousin Shepherd’s Pie, but Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb, while Cottage Pie is made with just about any other type of meat, typically beef. I chose to make this one a blonde version, using leftover shredded chicken I had on hand. Chicken might not be a staple in the Irish diet historically, but it’s super popular now, so let’s roll with that, k?

The other main difference between THIS particular cottage pie and your traditional cottage pie is the topping. Mouthwatering Irish Colcannon takes the place of the mashed potatoes, sneaking in a few more veggies and adding a lovely Irish flavor to the pie. I topped it with Irish cheddar because hey, Irish love their cheese and who am I to argue with that?

How do you make colcannon?

If you’ve never made colcannon, you are in for a treat! Don’t make colcannon purely for the sake of this recipe … please please make it for dinner sometime and savor and revel in the bliss of it, but be sure you make enough (or save a bit aside) to make this lovely cottage pie! I’ve got THREE different recipes for colcannon: you choose the one most fits your culinary tastes and dietary needs:

• Colcannon with Red Onion and Bacon – a lightened up version of colcannon that retains all the amazing flavor without so much guilt
• Cauliflower Kale Colcannon – a low-carb version of colcannon, using cauliflower in place of potatoes and kale
• Blue Potato Colcannon with Ham – the Irish version of bacon is more like the American version of ham, so this recipe might actually be more true to its heritage

Is this cottage pie heart healthy?

Keeping in mind my overall goal of keeping my cholesterol down and my heart strong and healthy, I took steps to keep this recipe heart healthy:

1. Lots of heart healthy veggies, which both boost the vitamin and mineral content and the fiber, fill you up and also limit the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol from the meat.
2. Grass-fed butter and grass-fed cheese are both delicious and help to lower cholesterol (according to my nutritionist).
3. Shredded chicken without the skin cuts contain less cholesterol and saturated fat than other meat choices, especially if you choose the breast meat.

To keep it heart healthy, you need to keep the amount of saturated/trans fats to a minimum, so limit the amount of bacon in your colcannon and if you’re using ham, follow these guidelines. If you have high blood pressure, you also want to limit the amount of sodium and bacon, ham and yes, chicken broth as well as the cheese and even salted butter contributes to salt content, so cut back on the things that add sodium or use low-salt equivalents. Use unsalted butter and add the other sodium bombs in a limited fashion as a seasoning, not as a central part of the meal.

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