Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

Pulling another favorite from the files of my treasured family recipes to share with ya'll today. I've been making this one for 25 years and I made it a lot while we were raising our family. I haven't made it in many years now, but our boy was home this weekend (Hip! Hip! Hooray!) and I wanted to make food he loved and send him home with leftovers and this fit the bill.

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

4 C cooked chicken, cubed
1/4 C butter
1/2 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped onion
chopped garlic
1/2 C flour
4 C chicken broth
salt & pepper
cayenne to taste
1 16 oz bag mixed vegetables
3 C Bisquick (I have a homemade recipe that I've always used)
1 C milk
1 C shredded cheese
Tabasco, Sriracha, or hot sauce of your choice

I usually cook a ton of chicken with onions and salt and pepper at once - cut it up and keep it on hand in the deep freeze. It comes in handy for so many dishes and it's one of my favorite time savers when pulling a recipe together quickly. I do the same with ground beef.

Melt your butter in a large saute pan. Add the celery, onion, and garlic and saute for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle your flour over this and stir it together to brown the flour and let it soak up the flavor of the sauted celery, onion, and garlic. Slowly add your chicken stock, stirring and simmering to create a thickened base. Stir in the cayenne and vegetables and chicken - let cook for a few minutes. Pour into 9 x 13" casserole dish. Mix your biscuit base with milk and stir in cheese. Plop onto vegetable and bake at 350° for about 30-45 minutes or until biscuits are baked through. DH is not picky, but he does not like doughy biscuits so I bake them longer if they are still doughy. We're a spice loving family so we like this with some sort of hot sauce on top.