Chicken Pot Pie...Biscuit...Casserole...Thing

This is in my recipe collection as "Chicken Pot Pie," but it's not actually a CHICKEN POT PIE. It's a variation thereof. A cheap, casseroled-out, biscuity-topped variation. Not a pie at all. It's...well, here:


CHICKEN POT PIE, KIND OF

1 lb chicken (whatever kind, I use skinless breasts because I don't care)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped

1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup (if you also don't care, otherwise you can substitute for this!)

Roughly 3/4 cup whatever fresh, canned or frozen vegetables you want to get rid of:

Carrots!
Peas!
Green beans!
Butter beans/lima beans!
CORN!

Bisquick mix (or your favorite brand of all-purpose baking mix) and milk to mix it with. OR you know. Your favorite homemade biscuit recipe, but - and I can't overstate this enough right now - I don't care.


To start, throw all the veggies in a pot of water and simmer them for like 20-30 minutes until they're cooked and tender. This recipe is excellent for getting rid of the last few vegetables in the bag, or cans that are about to expire. I add a pat of butter in with mine because...butter tastes good.

While the vegetables cook, chop the chicken into little chunks. Season to taste. Heat oil in a pan and brown them up. Pretty standard stuff. Remove the chicken and set it aside. I just go ahead at this point and put it in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Add the onion and celery to the empty chicken pan, and cook until the onion is translucent. Stir it all around from the bottom to get the flavor of the chicken bits left in the pan!

Next - cream of mushroom soup. Chicken broth. Milk. I don't have exact amounts for you, I'm so sorry. Start with 1/2 can of the broth, and 1/2 cup of milk, and work your way from there. Use your SKILL and PERCEPTION to decide if it's thick enough. If it's not, add a couple pinches of flour. Maybe you have too much chicken and veggies and not enough of this weird gravy to cover it all in the casserole dish? That happened to me! Add another can of mushroom soup, or more broth. You can cook, you got this.

If you don't want to use the soup, you can remove the onion/celery, make a quick flour/butter roux in the pan, and thicken it with the broth/milk mixture. That's up to you. The ultimate goal here is just to make a creamy chicken gravy to pour into the casserole dish. It does not have to be amazing.

POUR IT OVER THE CHICKEN IN THE CASSEROLE PAN. Drain your veggies when they're done, and stir them into the mix as well. PARTY IN YOUR BAKEWARE.

In a separate bowl, make some Bisquick mix. (OR HAND-MAKE BISCUITS, but that's ridiculous for a Thursday night. Community is about to start.)

My recipe literally says that. "Make some Bisquick mix." Well...okay? I used the "Biscuits or dumplings" recipe on the side of the box - I think it's 2/3 cup milk + 2 1/4 cups Bisquick mix. I did that TWICE because my casserole ended up being ENORMOUS. Fine. Did I mention I really don't care?

If you feel fancy, add a little sage to the biscuit mix for a nice subtle flavor. The sage in my pantry expired in 2010, did you know that?

You're going to top this casserole drop-biscuit style. Just plop 'em on there. They make a neat sound!

Preheat oven to 375. Stick this vat of food in there and cook it until the biscuit dough isn't raw and gross anymore. Like, I don't know, 30-40 minutes or so.

Eat it. Bring leftovers to work. Eat it again the next night. Bring more leftovers to work. I'm not kidding, I made WAY too much of this stuff.

It tastes great, though. And I totally DO care about that.