From-Scratch Chicken And Biscuits Recipe

Move over, chicken and dumplings — chicken and biscuits is ready to become our new favorite comfort food. Recipe developer Jessica Morone brings us this from-scratch chicken and biscuits recipe, and it's kind of like chicken and dumplings, and kind of like a chicken pot pie. This dish features a chicken, pea, and carrot filling, all topped off with a savory gravy and biscuits made, as the name suggests from scratch. "My favorite thing about this recipe is that it is a really comforting, homestyle dish. It's creamy and hearty and delectable," Morone describes. She also notes that you can "really make this dish your own" by switching up vegetables or seasonings, so if you've got some frozen mixed vegetables that have been taking up valuable space in the freezer, this recipe will put them to good use.

While the idea of making biscuits may intimidate some, it's really quite easy to make them from scratch. Requiring just a handful of pantry/fridge staples and needing no time to rise, homemade biscuit dough comes together effortlessly and tastes much better than the canned stuff. If you're looking for a classic, hearty dish to satisfy the whole family, you can't go wrong with this from-scratch chicken and biscuits recipe.

For the chicken, vegetables, and gravy portion of this dish, you'll need cooked and shredded chicken, frozen (but thawed) peas and carrots, butter, flour, chicken broth, heavy cream, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. "This is a pretty standard version of chicken and biscuits, but I did put a little bit of cayenne pepper in it that isnt usually included in this kind of recipe," Morone explains. "It gives the dish a little bit of spice an enhances the flavor of everything." She does note that you can easily omit this ingredient if you're not a fan. Finally, for the biscuits, you need but five ingredients: more flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, and a bit more butter. 

Get your oven preheating to 400 F and grease an 8x10-inch (or 2 ½ quart) casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread the cooked, shredded chicken across the bottom of the dish, then sprinkle the thawed peas and carrots over it. 

Now, focus on making the gravy. Melt ¼ cup of the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then stir in ¼ cup of flour and let that cook for just a minute. Slowly pour in the broth, then stir it all up and let it cook until thickened, which should only take about 3 minutes. Next up, slowly add in ½ cup of heavy cream, followed by the onion and garlic powders, ½ teaspoon of salt, pepper, and cayenne. Pour the gravy over the chicken and vegetables in the casserole dish, then set it aside for the time being.

Grab a large bowl and add in the remaining 1 cup of flour, ¼ teaspoon of salt, the baking powder, and sugar. Add the remaining ¼ cup of (cold) butter to the mix, then use either a fork or your fingers to pinch and incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients — your biscuit dough should be coarse and crumby after this step. Mix in the remaining ½ cup of heavy cream, which should leave you with a shaggy dough.

While it may be tempting to try to expedite the process, Morone warns against using any technology more advanced than a fork to make the biscuits. "Using something like a food processor or stand mixer might make you mix it too much and then your biscuits could end up tough," she explains. 

Once you've got that shaggy dough, turn it out onto a lightly-floured surface, then roll it out to be about ½-inch thick. Using either a biscuit cutter or the rim of a floured glass, cut out circular biscuits and line them up on top of the vegetables in the casserole dish. "I did roll out and cut the dough for this recipe for a more uniform look and baking time, but you could also just drop spoonfuls of dough on top of the chicken and veggie mixture to save some time," Morone says. The former option will give you that classic "biscuit" look whereas the latter will give you a more rustic look, but both will taste equally as good.

As soon as you've assembled each biscuit (or dollop) onto the vegetables, pop the whole dish into the oven. Allow the chicken and biscuits to bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the biscuits are nice and golden brown.

This dish is best enjoyed hot and fresh, so as soon as it's out of the oven, serve yourself a plateful of this comfort classic. "This is a pretty complete meal by itself, since it has things like veggies and protein and bread all in one, but you could serve something like a salad with it or mashed potatoes on the side," Morone suggests.

And, while this is a dish best enjoyed fresh, you can also enjoy leftovers — as Morone advises, "You can keep leftovers stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months."