I feel a sliver of shame every time I fall prey to another viral internet recipe. I hate to do what everyone else is doing. (You may be surprised to learn this, but it could be factor in many of my kitchen disasters.) I’m constitutionally unable — unwilling, more truthfully — to follow directions.
This is a point of tension in my marriage. I’m the Wing-It Woman and my husband is the Plan Man. He loves directions. He actually reads the instruction booklets that come with appliances. He likes spreadsheets, lists and defined outcomes. He likes how-to videos. He enjoys assembling furniture. He measures and makes pencil marks before hanging anything on the wall, whereas I just eyeball it and start hammering. He does not like using a tool for something other than what was intended. His common refrain: “It was designed to (fill in the blank).” I love misusing tools. Using a wrench as a hammer? It would make Simon break out in hives.
Moreover, he will not drive to a new place until he has first mapped it out on his phone, whereas I tend to head in the general direction and hope I get there. I like the feeling of being lost and having to use my wits and local knowledge to find my destination.
I won’t deny that I’ve teased Simon relentlessly about this. Sometimes my barbs have struck a nerve and I’ve started an argument. His point is that the best way to do something is to rely on the experience of those who’ve done it before you, because they’ve already broken down the process into clear steps. My counterpoint is that there’s a thrill in ignoring how other people have done it, going off the map (or off the recipe) and relying on my own smarts to figure something out. Simon’s counter-counterpoint is that my method is pretty dang knuckleheaded.
We had a particularly prickly exchange one weekend a couple years ago. We were in our car, ready to go someplace. Simon whipped out his phone to get directions and I huffed and puffed and said, “You don’t need a phone to get there! You already know the area. You can figure out the rest!” He looked up from his phone and locked eyes with me. I knew he was mad. He didn’t yell or argue his side. Instead, he said, “It makes me feel better to know where I’m going.”
Suddenly, I understood. Directions make him feel better, just like not following directions makes me feel better. From then on, I’ve been content to let him do his thing. The important part is that it makes him happy. And I’m happy to know he’s happy.
In honor of celebrating our differences, here is another recipe using my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method. It’s inspired by the chicken cobbler that is making the rounds of the internet. Briefly, the internet recipe goes like this: Melt a stick of butter in a casserole dish. Add shredded chicken, frozen vegetables, pancake batter or biscuit dough and a can of cream of chicken soup. Bake and eat. Simple enough, right? But I feel like that might be kind of goopy. And why do you need a whole stick of butter? Also, why aren’t there mushrooms? Most importantly, where is the cheese?
Fortunately, the internet is also full of chicken cobbler variations. I found a recipe that uses no butter and features mushrooms. Naturally, what follows is my personal variation of the variation. If you enjoy following directions, here’s how to do what I did. If you don’t like following directions, well, you should just wing it. You might do a better job.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Make Bisquick or other biscuit mix according to directions except replace milk with buttermilk and add ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese. Set aside. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add one large chopped onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Saute the onion until it’s soft and translucent. Add 1 teaspoon each of minced rosemary, thyme and sage — fresh herbs, if you can get them. Add 2 cups of sliced mushrooms and 1½ cups of chicken broth. Bring everything to a boil, then add 3 chicken thighs, chopped into chunks. Cook until the chicken is cooked through. Add the frozen mixed vegetables and cook until they’re thawed. Take 3 tablespoons of broth from the skillet and whisk them together with two tablespoons of corn starch. Add the slurry (isn’t that such a great word?) to the skillet and stir until the liquid thickens. Taste for saltiness and add more salt if you think it needs it. Drop spoonfuls of the biscuit batter directly on top of the filling. It’s OK if it’s uneven and bits of filling poke through. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes before serving. Leftovers keep in the fridge for two days. Alternately, you could cook the ingredients in a skillet then transfer them to a deep-dish pie pan before putting on the biscuit topping.
I baked my chicken-in-a-biscuit casserole at least five minutes too long, maybe 10. (For the record, I actually did follow directions on the cooking time and look at that. The directions were wrong! I feel smugly satisfied about that.) The biscuits were quite a dark shade of brown and just starting to burn in some places when I took it out of the oven. It was not past the point of edibility, however. I let it cool for about half an hour and decided to try a small portion.
It was yummy! It had just the right ratio of chicken-and-gravy filling to biscuit topping. The too-toasty top apparently didn’t interfere with the overall flavor. Simon loved it and served himself seconds. It felt like just the thing for a cool fall evening.
As for the directions-vs.-improvisation debate, I’m glad that I finally learned to chill out. It only took me three decades! As for Simon, well, you can see that he’s a patient man. Now if he would only stop stuffing his dirty socks between the couch cushions.
Chicken-in-a-Biscuit Casserole
For the filling:
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt or salt to taste
1 large chopped onion
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1½ cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon each minced fresh sage, rosemary and oregano
One 12-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables
3 boneless chicken thighs, diced
2 tablespoon cornstarch
For the topping:
2 1/4 cups Bisquick or other quick-biscuit mix
2/3 cup buttermilk
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine biscuit mix with buttermilk and ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese. Set aside. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large ovenproof skillet. Add 1 large chopped onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Saute until the onion is soft and translucent. Add 1 teaspoon each minced rosemary, thyme and sage — fresh herbs, if you can get them. Add 2 cups sliced mushrooms and 1½ cups chicken broth. Bring everything to a boil, then add 3 chicken thighs, chopped into chunks. Cook until done. Add the frozen mixed vegetables and cook until thawed. Take 3 tablespoons of broth from the skillet and whisk them together with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Add the slurry to the skillet and stir until the liquid thickens. Taste for salt and add more if desired. Drop spoonfuls of biscuit batter on top of the filling. (It’s OK if it’s uneven and bits of chicken filling poke through.) Bake for 30-35 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and toothpick inserted into biscuit layer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes before serving. Leftovers keep in the fridge for two days.
