OR Some People Think Casseroles Don't Get Hurt Feelings. Some People Don't Think This Is a Casserole. It Hurts the Casserole's Feelings When You Say That.
OR The Above Two Titles Are Inside Jokes With Myself And I Just Made Myself Laugh. A Lot.
My friend Lauren and I were having a Flight of the Conchords mini marathon and so food was in order. Because one of their songs mentions casseroles (and hurt feelings, see above) I thought I should do something in a casserole form. Originally I was thinking some sort of creamy chicken and rice dish. Then I gave it all up and thought I'd just serve the soup I made on Sunday because it really was delicious and I made lots of it and had plenty to spare as I had put the whole cauldron of it directly in my fridge and it was occupying lots of space that could be used by sour milk and baking soda instead. Then, my other friend Bridgid forwarded me a Chicken and Biscuits casserole recipe by Rachael Ray (Actually, I think Rache called it "Chicken 'N Biscuits"). Rachael's dish seemed like a good idea. Then I thought of a better one.
My take on Chicken and Biscuits involves more of a french twist (not the hairstyle, Liz) than the usual. What I came up with was basically what would happen if Gina Neely picked a down-home recipe and asked Ina Garten to update it, Rachael Ray to make it fast, and Sandra Lee to modify it with semi-homemade tricks that even people who have electric stoves can handle. Ina Garten suggested making the gravy an herbed wine cream sauce and added pancetta to crumble on top. Rachael recommended using pre-roasted chicken because no one has time to roast a whole chicken in 30 minutes and your local Price Chopper has them ready to go and serve right in their pre-cooked section! Yumm-O! Sandra Lee thought that if you mixed Bisquick, Parmesan, thyme and milk together, you could make really simple parmesan biscuits that would be just as good as if you bought them from a bakery or had pastry chef experience like she does. And she also wanted you to know that her red gingham shirt matches her curtains.
Moving on-- I started by purchasing a pre-roasted chicken. This was actually a really good time saver and it was cost effective. I could have bought chicken pieces, uncooked, for the same price as the whole roasted chicken. I'm not kidding around here. While letting it cool a smidge, I took 5 slices of pancetta, rolled them onto eachother, and then sliced and diced them up. I rendered those in a saucepan l as I took the time to carve the white meat off the roasted chicken and rip the subsequent pieces into shreds. I then put shredded chicken bits into a square casserole dish that had been buttered so nothing would get too sticky.
Next, I started on the sauce and veggies. I finely sliced up a bulb of fennel so I could get it cooking immediately. Fennel has a bit of an anise flavor when it is raw, but it is actually quite sweet when cooked all the way through and adds richness that onion lacks. By this point, the pancetta was more than crispy and pretty much burnt, so using a slotted spoon I removed the bits from the pan and onto a paper towel, reserving the fat and oil in the pan. I added the fennel to that very pan and let it sizzle. Here's the point where you want to chop up your parsnips and carrots. I cut them on an angle and kept them slender so they would cook up quickly.
Add those to the pan, toss in some dried herbs de provence, stir and let them cook up with the fennel so they are tender on the inside with carmelized bits on the outside. Once the veggies look amazing and you want to gobble them up even though you know (A) it would ruin the final dish and (B) you would burn your mouth, pour about a glass full of white wine (maybe 2 glasses of wine if you want to get it drunk) into the mixture. Let it reduce. Roll a lemon on your table, cut it in half, juice it, and then forget you did that because even though it would have added a nice citrus glow to your sauce, you forgot about it and ended up using it for salad dressing which was too lemony, I'd say, but my guest was too polite to mention it.
Once the wine has evaporated into oblivion, add two tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of flour to the pan. Stir it up fast. Add a couple of cups of chicken broth. Pour in some skim milk. Stir stir stir like crazy. Watch it thicken. Don't watch it thicken. Chop up fresh herbs (a mixture of thyme, tarragon, parsley) and throw it into the sauce/vegetables. Pour this over the chicken. Then, in a seperate bowl, take a cup or so of bisquick, a few handfuls of parmesan, chopped up thyme and mix. Pour in some milk, mixing until it forms a dough. Drop onto the top of your now saucy chicken.
Bake the casserole in the oven at somewhere between 350 and 400 degrees F (did I mention you should preheat) and bake until the biscuits are cooked through (about the length of one episode of Conchords-- 26ish minutes). I suggest serving this with a mixed green salad tossed with a citrus vinagrette that you make with mustard, olive oil, herbs de provence, sea salt and only HALF of the lemon juice you previously juiced (i.e. one half a lemon's juice).
No comments:
Post a Comment