Lighter Chicken and Biscuits...

While we have been busy cooking away for Jeff's mom, we've only made 6 new recipes this week - out of those, our favorites were that Spring Chicken and Blue Cheese Salad, those Apple-Cherry Crumble Bars and the Baked Easter Doughnuts.

Tonight's dinner, Lighter Chicken and Biscuits, is kind of a play on pot pie, but not as heavy or time consuming. Instead of encasing what you would typically find as a filling, this recipe calls for serving the creamy mixture with a whole-wheat biscuit as a topper instead of a butter-laden pie crust.

The biscuit is not fussy at all - just a simple drop biscuit using canola oil for the fat. While not as fluffy as one would get if you used butter, the biscuit still had a good flavor and was just a bit more hearty. After a quick mix of the ingredients, we had gotten those in the oven and began working on the thick "stew" portion of the dish.

We started softening thinly sliced carrots, celery and pearl onions in our Dutch oven - once they had just began to soften, we sprinkled the vegetable mixture with just a couple tablespoons of flour. To make sure the flour doesn't give the liquids a raw taste, let the mixture cook for just a minute or two while you are stirring. Milk and a bit of water are the next additions, followed by a touch of thyme.

You will notice that the liquids will tighten up fairly quick as soon as it hits a simmer - when it is bubbling, but not boiling, chunks of lean chicken breast is stirred in. The chicken shouldn't take too long to cook through, but if your pieces are very big and it ends up taking more time, you may want to add a couple splashes of broth or milk as the mixture will continue to thicken. With a high proportion of chicken to vegetables, this meaty dish was quite the stomach-warming meal. We all thought it was a nice way to end the day as we are preparing for yet another nasty spring snow storm! It was almost 50 degrees today and they are calling for up to 9" of snow tomorrow.

Recipes
Lighter Chicken and Biscuits