I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner tonight. Scrounging around in the fridge, I found a half of a store bought roasted chicken. I was kind of in the mood for compfort food, so I thought I'd throw together a pot pie. I've made chicken pot pie a number of times, and I usually make a sage biscuit crust, but I was trying to throw something together relatively quickly, so I decided to make drop biscuits in a food processer to speed things along. In the end what I wound up with was not quite chicken and dumplings, and not quite a pot pie. I dubbed it chicken cobbler, and it it turned out quite good.
Chicken Cobbler
Chicken Stew Base
1/2 Roasted Chicken
2 tbsp olive oil
8 oz sliced crimini or white button mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup finely diced shallot or 1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk (I use 2% fat)
1 tsp herbs de Provence, or whatever herbs you like. Fresh thyme or fresh parsley are nice.
8oz frozen peas
1/4 tsp tabasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the bones, and shred or chop into bite size pieces. Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook tossing occasionally until the mushrooms are well browned. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and set aside. Return the pan to the stove, turn the heat down to medium, and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the shallots or onion, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until the veggies are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook about 1 minute stirring constantly. Add the broth and milk, and stir until the mixture is smooth and begins to thicken, about 3 minutes. Add the herbs, chicken, reserved mushrooms, peas, and tabasco sauce. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper as needed. Turn heat to low, and let the mixture simmer while you work on the biscuit topping.
Drop Biscuit Topping
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup buttermilk
Combine all the dry ingredients in the work bowl of a food processor. Give the mixture about 5 one second pulses to combine. Add the vegetable shortening, and combine using about 10 - 15 one second pulses or until the mixture resembles course corn meal. Add the butter milk and pulse about 10 times until well combined. The mixture will be relatively wet. Using a soup spoon spoonfuls of the dough over the top of the chicken stew base. The dough balls should be about the size of ping pong balls.
Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the biscuit topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Cool for about 5 minutes before serving. Serves 4, or 2 to 3 really hungry people.
