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Chicken n Biscuits

chicken and a biscuit

This beautiful meal is absolute bowl-licking deliciousness. Chicken and veggies enrobed in a winey, chickeny veloute with light, buttery biscuits proudly perched on top. After a good day at work, coming home and putting this together for the guys was a real pleasure. It would be easy to think of biscuits as off limits for dinner, but that’s not the way I think my good peeps…nope, a perfect biscuit is just as much at home on the dinner table as it is on the breakfast plate. Of course I used the cylinder technique to make the biscuits and I urge you to do so too. Surely I can’t be the first person to think of the cylinder technique but I will tell you that my sweet genius husband is very proud of me for it…that and my other totally original invention, the vacuum sleeve.

Chicken n Biscuits
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1 medium onion diced
6 tablespoons butter
2 chicken breasts, diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons flour
pinch of dried rosemary

Preheat the oven to 425°. Sauté the onions and chicken over medium heat. Set aside. Put the potatoes and carrots in a pan and cover shallowly with water…toss in some salt and cook until tender. If you use purple potatoes cook them separately from the carrots because the colors will mix. Drain and set aside. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a pan and mix in the flour. Cook over a medium low heat and then add the wine and chicken stock, whisking to form a sauce. Cook gently for a few minutes, taste for salt and then adjust. Add the rosemary, the potatoes, carrots, chicken/onions, and the frozen peas.

Vanessa’s Better Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons of butter, very cold, diced
¾ cup of milk (more or less)
Put the flour, salt, and baking powder into the workbowl of your food processor fitted with the blade. Pulse this to mix it and then add the diced butter. Pulse until it is coarsely combined. Add the milk through the opening in the top as you pulse it to mix it together. Add it very slowly and only add enough to bring the dough together. It’ll be different every time you make them.
Turn the dough out onto the counter (here comes the cylinder technique) and roll it into a cylinder with a circumference that is the size of the biscuit you want to make. Cut the cylinder into equally sized pieces…again depending on the size of biscuit you want.

Butter a baking dish and pour the chicken mixture into it. Place the biscuits on top. Into the oven it goes for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.

Eat it up and feel good about yourself…a meal like this, you deserve it.

November 12, 2008 | Filed Under Local, baking, beef, fish, poultry, pork, food, quick and easy, recipe 

comments

12 Responses to “Chicken n Biscuits”

  1. lisaiscooking on November 13th, 2008

    This looks great, especially with the purple potatoes! Did the cylinder method require more working of the dough at all?

  2. vanessa on November 13th, 2008

    Nope, not at all…the cylinder method basically uses the food processor to tbring the dough together and then you dump it onto the counter and roll it into a cylinder. It makes the best biscuits…super tender.

  3. Erin @ The Skinny Gourmet on November 14th, 2008

    I just made a classic chicken pot pie two days ago myself. I meant to take a photo of it, but before I got around to it the whole thing was gone! I blame my husband, who loves pot pie. We used a cornbread crust on it for the first time, which I was quite pleased by. But the buttery, flakey biscuit topping is hard to beat. And I love the purple potatoes in there for color!

  4. [eatingclub] vancouver || js on November 14th, 2008

    That is some serious-looking bowl of comfort. Those are purple potatoes! I was wondering what the purple chunks were. Cute!

  5. Sues on November 15th, 2008

    Mmmm I had a craving for bisquits the other day sooo I’m pretty sure this post was meant for me. The purple potatoes are soo pretty!

  6. Jude on November 15th, 2008

    I do use the cylinder technique myself for biscuits. It works :)

  7. Hilary on November 21st, 2008

    As a poor, food-obsessed college student, I have yet to acquire a food processor. What other method would work well to cut the butter into the flour for the biscuits? Also, what could I substitute for the chicken to make the dish vegetarian?

    I can’t wait to try it (and I love your blog)!

  8. vanessa on November 22nd, 2008

    Hilary, there is this kind of tool:

    http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-Grips-Dough-Blender-Blades/dp/B000QJE48O/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1227365342&sr=8-16

    and I bet you could find one at a thrift shop for under a dollar. You can use your hands but you need to cool them down with cold water first and then work as quickly as you can. There is also the 2 knife technique…a knife in each hand and quickly cutting the butter into the dough. I was never any good at that one.

    A substitute for chicken would be dried mushrooms that you rehydrate, chop saute, and fava beans would be nice too. You can buy those dried at the store and once you rehydrate them and slip their skins off they are really quite good.

    Thanks for the kind words.

  9. Sam on November 23rd, 2008

    I stumbled on your site yesterday on a search for strawberry scone recipes, and the chicken & biscuits looked so good I had to make it last night – it was great! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thanks!

  10. sunny on March 24th, 2009

    Oh man that looks good, and we have lots of purple sweet potato here, so I will definitely try it.
    Mahalo!

  11. Pam Bell on August 1st, 2009

    How do I print a recipe without getting all the comments?

  12. vanessa on August 1st, 2009

    Howdy there Ms. Bell. Click on the “printer friendly version” directly under the title of the recipe.

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