Chicken Pot-Pie Casserole with Biscuit Topping

This dish was inspired by Tiffany's vegetarian version, which I don't have the recipe for but which was damn, damn good.

My version was inspired by two recipes: Just Chicken Pot Pie (America's Best Lost Recipes cookbook) and Buttermilk biscuits (Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook, Mollie Katzen).  Both were adapted, and can be adapted further.

This is a pot-pie with no crust, baked in a casserole dish with chunks of biscuit on top for a crust-like effect.  It takes a while to make/bake (an hour and a half including baking), but the result is a delicious, savory, incredibly popular meal that will feed a LOT of people.  Or, four very hungry, greedy people.  The quantities of most vegetables here are approximate, but this recipe is very forgiving if you use more or less of something.  You could also omit the chicken and increase the amount of vegetables or use less butter, or substitute olive oil for the butter.  The richness of this dish is part of what makes it so good, but the flavors of the vegetables and biscuit is enough for it to shine without the extra cheese and butter.  

"Pie" Filling

~2 lbs chicken breast, no skin or bone

~3 carrots

an onion

~3 celery stalks

several summer squash

~4 cloves garlic

zest of one lemon

a few chopped green onions

salt and pepper to taste

2 c. broth

1/3 c. flour

1 stick butter

1 c. buttermilk

~1 c. gruyere cheese (to taste)

Biscuit Topping

2 c. flour (use half wheat/half unbleached if you like)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten, plus

enough buttermilk to bring the egg to 2/3 cup

1/3 c. melted butter

chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400*F

Boil or roast chicken breasts, then shred the meat.

Melt the butter and sautee the onions until translucent, then add celery, carrots, squash all chopped finely (& other veggies that you like).  Add green onions and garlic and fry until fragrant.  Add the flour and stir until it gets a little toasty, about a minute.  Add the broth, buttermilk and lemon zest, stir it and let simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, ~5 minutes.  Add the chicken and season w/ salt and pepper.  Turn off the heat.

Mix the dry ingredients for the biscuits in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.  Pour the combined egg/buttermilk in the well, and the melted butter.  Stir until just combined, adding the onions when it is sort of half-mixed.  Pat into a uniform, smooth ball.

Pour the veggie/chicken/saucy mix into a casserole pan and sprinkle with the grated cheese.  The insane part of the original recipe (the "Just Chicken Pot Pie") was that it called for straining the vegetables out of the sauce and discarding them - which is truly insane.  These veggies are goo-oo-ood.  Cover with chunks of the biscuit dough, alternating biscuit with cheese if you like.  Little pieces of dough will get crispy, larger chunks will get doughy and biscuity (I highly recommend the big chunks).  

Bake for 40 minutes or until the biscuit topping is crispy.  Cook 10 minutes, eat, then tell me how good it was!

Fluffy Cheese Biscuits

These biscuits are rich but light, and best right out of the oven. This recipe is lifted out of Paris Boulangerie Patisserie, a truly excellent collection of pastry recipes (by real French Patissiers) compiled by Linda Dannenberg. I added chopped flat-leaf parsley to half of the batter, which gave the biscuits a nice speckled look and a little more depth of flavor. The bakery I used to work at sold cheddar-chive variations of these biscuits, which were also exquisite.

6 tbs. butter, cut into small pieces
1 c. water
pinch of salt
pinch of white pepper (I used black pepper - was great)
1.5 c. all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
2 c. coarsely grated gruyere cheese (~half a pound)
(~1/3 c. chopped parsley)

Preheat oven to 400*F.

Bring water, salt and butter to boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the flour and pepper with a wooden spoon (will be quite thick). Return to medium heat for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. At this point, the mix should be very thick and begin to form a film on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each one. After all the eggs are added, the batter has "the consistency of a thick mayonnaise" or a thick pancake batter. Add the cheese, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the rolls (I forgot to do this). Add the herbs, if using, and mix in.

Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and sprinkle the reserved cheese on the rolls. They won't look like much on the tray, but they puff up impressively in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, until puffy and golden.

Makes about 18 (delicious) rolls, or twice as many small rolls. If there are any leftover, toast them before re-serving as they are really better when warm. Once they've cooled, the moist fluffy interior gets a little spoungy, but toasting brings back their joie de vivre.