It can’t get easier than this. Use leftover turkey or roasted chicken and transform it
into a creamy, steamy biscuit-topped casserole.
Wait – It gets easier! I cheated when I prepared this dish. I had some chicken breasts in the freezer and poached them. And then I used frozen peas & carrots, country-style diced frozen hash browns, frozen chopped onions, and a box of commercial biscuit mix for the luscious dumpling-like topping. This is not my normal style, but what the heck. I wasn’t looking forward to chopping a bunch of vegetables this particular day. It was an easy way out. It was so easy in fact that I’m sure I’ll utilize more frozen prepared vegetables in the future, for sure! And it tasted just as good as if I’d made it from scratch, even the biscuits.
I still like to make my own white sauce rather than canned cream soups. My husband and I need to watch our salt intake, and it’s one way I can control the amount I use in a recipe.
Here we go!
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup frozen diced onions
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 bag frozen peas & carrots
- 1 cup frozen corn (optional)
- 2 cups frozen country-style hash browns, diced not shredded
- 2 cups low-sodium or homemade chicken stock
- 1 cup half-n-half OR 1 cup whole milk
- 2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, shredded or cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried basil (optional)
- For the biscuits
- 2½ cups baking mix (I used Kroger's, but you can use Bisquick or Jiffy)
- 1 cup of cold whole milk
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- On the stove, melt the olive oil and butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onions and cook until soft. Add minced garlic, stir and cook for one minute.
- Add 3 Tablespoons flour. Stir until you can no longer see any white flour. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add the chicken stock. Whisk until incorporated. Cook until sauce begins to simmer and thickens a bit.
- Add milk. Stir and bring back up to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add peas & carrots and potatoes and stir. Bring back up to a simmer.
- Add chicken. Stir until everything is mixed together.
- If the sauce is too thick, you can add more chicken stock.
- Check for seasoning.
- Pour into a 9"x13" rectangular baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
- Mix the baking mix and milk together.
- Drop by heaping Tablespoons all over the chicken mixture.
- Bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until the biscuits have risen, turned a nice golden brown, and the sauce is bubbling.
- Remove from oven to a cooling rack and let the casserole sit for 10 minutes before serving.
