If you know us, you know we like to eat out. We go out to eat to celebrate – birthdays, hard days, lazy days – they’re all worth celebrating by going out! But this past week, I’ve made a very, VERY good effort at eating in. And of course, eating in helps the pocketbook! The key for us is making something that will last at least two meals, mostly so we can have leftovers for lunch the next day. The new recipe I tried was a hit with Taylor, and was just perfect for two meals for the two of us. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! (I put my additional comments in italics at the end of the original directions.)
Chicken, Biscuits -n- Gravy Casserole (from Rachael Ray Magazine)
Ingredients:
1 medium to large rotisserie chicken
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the dish
8 ounces white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
salt and freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves
2 cups baking mix, such as Bisquick
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425°. Butter a large casserole dish. Pull the meat off the chicken, shredding it with your fingers or a fork into the baking dish. (Then give the chicken carcass to your husband. He will think you are awesome and this snack will tide him over until time for dinner.)
In a large skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over high heat. Add the mushrooms, onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are browned, about 6 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, sprinkle the flour into the skillet and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the chicken broth, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup of the milk and simmer for 1 minute more. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the lemon juice, and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the gravy over the chicken in the baking dish. (I didn’t have lemon juice, and I didn’t think the dish was missing anything)
Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter with the garlic. (Since the stove was on, I put the butter & garlic mixture in a little ceramic dish on the burner that releases the oven heat. It worked great for melting the butter, and I didn’t really have to do anything.)
Stir together the baking mix, the remaining 2/3 cup of milk and the cheese. Drop tablespoonfuls of the biscuit mixture on top of the casserole and brush with half of the garlic butter. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes, brushing them once or twice with the remaining garlic butter. (I used Jiffy baking mix and made the biscuits pretty small – one or two bite sized. I was also pretty generous with the cheese since I didn’t actually measure it out, probably used an extra 1/4 cup. 2/3 cup of milk wasn’t quite enough to moisten the biscuit mix so I used an extra splash or two. The biscuits were dry and not too gooey with cheese, which worked well for reheating. I did cover the pan with foil after about 15 minutes because my oven was browning the biscuits pretty fast on the top.)
And here’s a picture of the delicious finished product. If you try it out, let me know what you think.
Andrea Unplugged 