Tonight's adventure:
Chicken and Biscuit Casserole. 1 Pillsbury biscuit tube 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (regular sized), 1/2 cup of Sour Cream, 1/2 stick of butter, 2 cups cooked chicken, 1 cup mild cheddar cheese 3 TBS milk. Bake 375 35 min. mmmmmm!!
Doesn't that look like scrumptious Midwestern comfort food??? Yes, yes it does. Did I pin it in a moment of weakness, convinced that I gained three pounds just by looking at it? Damn skippy. But then... I'm trying to use as much of the food we already have in the house before we jet off to DC for a couple days/trying to stretch the time between grocery visits. I had butter, sour cream, cream of chicken, chicken breasts, and milk ON HAND. Fine. You win, Pinterest.I stopped at the grocery store for the biscuits and cheese (I feel fat just typing that) and decided to get some frozen chopped broccoli to throw in too. Because if it's green, it's healthy. And no one needs to be eating fifty shades of brown for dinner.
I dutifully typed all the ingredients into my calorie tracker and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was only about 400 calories for one serving (i.e. one biscuit with the stuff around/under it). I used reduced fat cheese, light sour cream, and the 2 cups of cooked, shredded chicken measured out to about 10oz. I'm sure this could have been a huge calorie bomb if I'd gone whole hog on the dairy products.
And here's the outcome:
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| Pretty, right? Look at the green! |
Here are my thoughts on it:
- OMG DO NOT PUT IN THE BUTTER. First of all, the recipe, such as it is, doesn't specify HOW the butter is to be added. Melted? Mashed to a pulp? I guessed and chopped it into tiny pieces and stirred it in. I can't imagine melted would be any better or different. Once cooked, the butter kind of rose to the top and melted across the surface, so there was a nice butter sheen across the chicken layer. Not appetizing. And it's rich enough with the sour cream and the cheese and the chicken soup that you do not need the butter. Damn, Paula.
- Use a smaller pan than I did. I was making a casserole. I put it in my casserole pan (9x13). Seems logical. Weeeell... the chicken layer was a touch thin. Either double the recipe or use a smaller pan.
- See that part of the recipe up there? The part that says 375 for 35 minutes? Yeah, ignore that. Since everything else is cooked and you're really just heating the chicken layer, cook it like you're cooking the biscuits (17-20 minutes according to the biscuit tin wrapper exploding thing). I cooked it for 15 minutes because our oven runs crazy hot. Do NOT cook it for 35 minutes unless you want to burn the fuck out of your biscuits.
- Add pepper. And garlic powder. And other tasty spices. Without the spices and the broccoli, this would have been insanely bland.
- I would also suggest using crescent rolls instead of biscuits. That way you can get a nice even crust over the whole thing and your chicken to bread ratio might be better. And then you've basically made a pot pie. Who doesn't love a pot pie?
Final verdict: Tasty, after I semi-fixed it. It tasted like the 1950s, which is also what chicken a la king tastes like to me. So, not bad, but not the best thing ever. A solidly easy, go-to casserole for busy nights.
But one serving was not enough, due to the lack of chicken mixture under the biscuit in my overly large casserole dish. I did run today, so it might be that my metabolism was going gangbusters, but it was more likely due to the chicken mixture to biscuit ratio.
I'll probably make it again as it was ridiculously easy, but I'll probably tweak it some more.
Good job, Pinterest. You didn't totally let me down today.
To be continued...
Yum! Looks awesome! I volunteer for any taste-testing!
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