One of my all-time favorite foods is my Momma’s Chicken and Dumplins. Fluffy dumplins, tender chicken and veges in a rich, flavorful, creamy sauce. It’s love and comfort in a bowl. Momma makes it all from scratch – the dumplins, the chicken broth – everything. After watching her make it for years, and many botched attempts, I’ve learned to make it too. Staying real, mine is not as good as Momma’s, but it’s darn scrumptious. The challenge – it is very time consuming (love takes time – right?) so I make it maybe once or twice a year.
Today, short on time and energy, I wanted some of that love and comfort so I opened the frig, eyed our leftovers and pulled this together. It is not in the same league as Momma’s Chicken and Dumplins. This is more of a Sandra Lee-esque pot pie made from leftovers and whop biscuits. Fast, easy, economical and surprisingly tasty.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saucepan, sauté ¼ chopped onionand a half stalk chopped celery.
- Pour in about 2 cups cooked mixed vegetables. I used a mix leftover from yesterday’s dinner that had peas, carrots and potatoes in a light brothy liquid. Bring that to a light simmer.
- Add 2 cloves chopped garlicand a bit of rosemary. Add chopped deboned, deskinned rotisserie chicken.We had half a chicken – also from yesterday’s dinner.
- Stir in a can of cream of mushroom soup (We keep Campbells Healthy Request in the pantry. It’s lower sodium and works well in gravy). Add a bit of chicken broth if needed to thin it a bit.
- Return mixture to a light simmer. Add pepperand Tony Cacheres season salt to taste. Spoon into mini crocks or ramekins.
- Roll out your favorite whop (refrigerator) biscuits into circles large enough to cover the crock/ramekin. It took two biscuits to get a large enough circle. Rounds of thawed frozen pie crust or canned crescent rolls would also probably be delicious on top. You could dot the top with butter (for browning and flavor) or brush with an egg wash (for shine and browning). I didn’t bother with either.
- Place on the crocks/ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for about 13 minutes or until lightly browned.