One of the many things that I inherited from my Mom is my love of leftovers. She and I both agree that leftovers are a wonderful thing. I have always liked them as far as I can recall, although I'm not sure how we ever had any considering the fact that there were so many of us (eight kids). What's not to like about them? You spent time and energy preparing a meal, you sat down and enjoyed eating it, and now you can do it again the next day but without the whole spending time and energy part? Sign me up! I never understood why people bemoaned having leftovers until if finally dawned on me that the trouble was probably that the meal wasn't very good in the first place and it did not improve with age (some things are like that, fish for example).
I like most leftovers in all three forms they come: cold from the fridge (Hey, Babe does not understand this, his loss), reheated on the stove or in the oven (not a microwave, blah, we don't even own one), or reinvented into another dish. They make great lunches, snacks, or if there is enough, another whole dinner. This dinner falls into the last category.
When I make a roast it is with the intention of using the leftovers in another dish. Even though Little Man is a great eater, his is still just a little man right now and roasting a whole chicken for the three of us leaves me with a lot of bird after the meal is done. I count on this and plan into the menu to make a soup or a casserole a few nights later. We were supposed to have Chicken Pot Pie this week but Hey, Babe requested biscuits and since that isn't a big deviation from the plan I agreed.
This is a very simple meal, I am sure many of you have made it before. I like that it can be homemade in varying degrees. Each of the components can either be made from scratch or substituted with a convenience item from the grocery store, and while I prefer the whole thing to be made from scratch, I admit that I have gone completely the other route and just assembled the whole thing from purchased items. Tonight I went with making the whole thing from scratch. It is so simple that there really isn't a need for measurements for anything except the biscuits but I have included estimates. Feel free to throw in things like diced potatoes, chopped and sauteed onions and celery or whatever else you like.
Chicken and Biscuits Ingredients For Casserole Portion: 1-2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces 1 bag mixed vegetables 2-3 cups chicken gravy For Biscuits: 3 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 sticks frozen unsalted butter (if using food processor. If not, have the butter chilled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces) 1 cup buttermilk Instructions Preheat oven to 375°F. Pour the frozen mixed veggies into a baking pan, toss the chicken on top and then stir in the gravy until it is thoroughly combined. Set aside. In bowl of your food processor combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda together. Using the shredding disk, feed the butter through the tube to grate the sticks into small pieces. Remove shredding disk and pulse everything until the butter is distributed and resembles coarse meal. (or by hand, use fingertips to rub 3/4 cup chilled butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal.) Add buttermilk and pulse/mix until evenly moistened. Between well floured hands, flatten smallish pieces of dough and place them on the top of the chicken mixture until it is evenly covered. It does not matter if there are seams in between the pieces, this allows some of the steam to be released while it is cooking. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until the biscuits are cooked through and golden brown on top.  |
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