Chicken and Biscuits

Print Recipe

Prep Time1 30

Cook Time1 30

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, Dinner, Stew

Servings: 8

Equipment

Biscuit or cookie cutter, about 2"
Dutch oven
Stand mixer with paddle beater

Ingredients

Stew

1½ lbs chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
½ cup flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne
¼ cup olive oil
1 large leek, white and light green parts ¼" half moons
2 large carrots ¼" half moons
1 large parsnip ¼" half moons
1 large sweet potato ½" cubes
2 stalks celery ¼" half moons
¼ cup dry white wine
1 qt chicken stock or broth
2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp dried sage
½ tsp dried rosemary

Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ lb cold, unsalted butter (1 stick, 4 oz)
¾ cup half and half
½ cup fresh parsley chopped medium fine

Biscuit glaze

1 egg
1 tbsp water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°

Chicken

Cut thighs into 1" pieces
Combine flour, salt, pepper and cayenne in a large (gallon sized) ziplock bag. Shake well to combine.
Put chicken pieces into bag and shake well to coat chicken pieces on all sides. Shake off excess. Save any flour remaining after all chicken has been coated.
Heat 2T oil in dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add chicken in batches and turn to brown on all sides. Remove chicken to bowl as it gets done and continue until all chicken is browned, adding more oil as needed to prevent sticking. (Chicken will finish cooking in casserole)
Add remaining oil to empty skillet and sweat (don't brown) the vegetables until fragrant and slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with white wine, scraping up any browned bits. Add remaining flour from dredging chicken and stir thoroughly to coat veggies. (Chicken and veggies can be prepped to this point and then frozen separately. Thaw and continue with next step)
Add chicken broth to veggies in pot and stir well. COVER pan and bake in preheated oven 25 minutes.

Biscuits

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle beater. Add butter and mix on low speed until butter is the size of peas.
Add half and half and combine on low speed. Add parsley and mix just until well distributed.
Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and roll out 3/8" thick. Cut out biscuits with 2" cutter.

Putting it together

Add lemon juice, sage and rosemary to veggies; stir well and add browned chicken pieces, stirring to distribute.
Arrange biscuits on top and brush with egg wash. Bake UNCOVERED 20-30 minutes until biscuits are browned and stew is bubbly.
Any biscuits that didn't fit on the casserole can be baked alongside on a parchment or silicon lined baking sheet.

Notes

This is everyone's favorite recipe. It can also be made with dumplings instead of biscuits, as we did originally.

For the dumplings, whisk to combine:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp baking powder

Combine and Add to flour mixture:

2/3 cup milk

3Tbsp melted butter

Mix well with a spatula just until evenly combined. Spoon or scoop dough on top of casserole in place of biscuits and bake COVERED 20-25 minutes.

This recipe doubles and freezes well. I've noted in the recipe where to stop to freeze. Don't make the biscuits until you're ready to bake the casserole.

I'll often add more veggies (one white and one orange sweet potato, Tokyo turnips, peas when adding chicken, anything else that looks particularly good at farmers market). I don't always use the full qt of chicken stock. It depends on how loose it looks when you've added the stock to veggies. I start with 3 c and if it looks too thick or dry I'll add the other cup. If you're making dumplings instead of biscuits, it's better to use the whole qt - the extra liquid helps the dumplings cook and it will thicken a bit more than when making biscuits.