Southern Comfort

With the rain falling it just seemed like a comfort food kind of day. After the morning’s ordeal of getting my yearly mammogram and a trip to Costco, I had this craving for chicken and dumplings.

I arrived at the ultrasound office to find a hand-written sign stating that their processing machine was out of commission so there would be a delay. I hadn’t planned to spend hours sitting around thinking about sensitive parts of my anatomy being compressed. But after about an hour it was business as usual and I was lucky not to need any re-dos on the 4 standard “pictures” they take.

I practically sailed through Costco, totally emptied of the look of Christmas and obviously gearing up for New Year’s with champagne and chafing dishes. I never go to Costco without buying one of their $4.99 roasted chickens. They are undoubtedly not free-range chickens, but they are cooked to perfection and the price is definitely right. Every other item in my cart was fruit!

It was on the way home that I remembered the rest of the ½ recipe I had made of “homemade” Bisquick for the waffles (which were delicious). The chicken and biscuit dough just seemed destined to be combined, so here’s the recipe (for 2) I dreamed up.

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
– Mix 1 cup of your version of Bisquick with 1/4 cup of milk. Set aside.
– Saute the following chopped ingredients in a small amount of olive oil: ½ onion, 2 stalks celery, 1 carrot.
– Add a heaping tablespoon of flour to the vegetables. Add chicken broth to cover.
– Add chopped parsley, French thyme, salt, and pepper.
– Add one chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces.
– Cook just until slightly thickened.
– Pour into a small souffle dish or other baking dish.
– Form the dough into biscuits/dumplings with your hands and place them on top just barely touching.
– Bake until the biscuits are tender and slightly brown (about 20-25 minutes.) Should be bubbling by then.

Just as it was ready to come out of the oven my husband walked in. I solved his perpetual dilemma of what to eat for lunch. He even went back for seconds.

Given the 15 minutes of prep time, this impromptu chicken and dumplings exceeded my expectations and made me forget about the dreary day outside.