Chicken breast casserole "Provence"

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 600 g chicken breast
• 1 kg tomatoes, fresh
• 2 balls of mozzarella
• 200 g crème fraîche with herbs
• 100 g Parmesan, coarsely sliced
• 2 tsp herbs of Provence, dried herb mix
• ½ lemon(s), the juice
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove(s) garlic
• some salt and pepper
• 1 tsp, leveled cornstarch
• 1 large baguette(s), for dipping

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 35 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

Preheat the oven to 200°C (top/bottom heat). Heat the vegetable oil in a pan, sear the chicken breast briefly (it should still be raw inside), season with salt and pepper, and then let cool briefly. In the meantime, wash the tomatoes, remove the stems, and cut into thick slices, reserving the resulting tomato juice in a small bowl. Cut the mozzarella into thin slices and the garlic into wafer-thin slices. Coarsely grate or grate the Parmesan cheese, and carefully mix the cornstarch with the crème fraîche and the reserved tomato juice. (The cornstarch prevents the sour milk product from curdling too much!) Cut the chicken breast into slices approximately 1 cm thick. Layer the tomatoes, mozzarella, and chicken breast in a baking dish like roof tiles, occasionally adding a little more of the garlic, and season generously with the herbs, salt, and pepper. Spread the crème fraîche over the casserole and smooth it out, ensuring some of it gets between the layers of ingredients. Cook the casserole on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes, then remove it briefly, drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and finish cooking for a further 10 minutes. Serve the sliced ​​baguette on the side to soak up the delicious cooking liquid. Tip: The casserole tastes even better with a mix of fresh herbs, which my garden unfortunately only produces in summer. Simply gather basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, tarragon, rosemary, fennel seeds, chervil, lovage, and lavender until you have a good handful and place them between the casserole layers. Well-stocked supermarkets sometimes even carry fresh mixes!