I’ve been dreaming about ROSEMARY BISCUITS (served over potpie)

For a week prior to making this dish I couldn’t stop thinking about how delicious homemade rosemary biscuits would taste. So, I finally made them as a topping for pot pie and they were wonderful. It was the perfect meal for a crisp fall day, not to mention a good one after running a half marathon that morning in San Jose.

 Making this dish is easy, simple and relatively healthy. You can substitute in any root vegetables – whatever you like. I also want to note that I used leftover chicken that I roasted a few nights before – my husband cut up a whole chicken and we roasted the pieces in a casserole dish with red potatoes, diced red onion, salt, pepper, a few sprigs of thyme and a few slices of lemon (it was delicious on it’s own and in the pot pie).

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tsp olive oil
1 celery stalk, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
1/2 cup diced jicama *
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock (omit the poultry seasoning if you use chicken stock)
1 tsp poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
2+ cups bite size pieces of cooked chicken
2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups fat free milk
1/2 tsp minced rosemary
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

*I had not intended to use jicama, but after dicing it up and realizing it wasn’t what I thought it was, i just went with it and saved the other half for a salad. The jicama actually held up really well in the potpie and provided a nice refreshing bite.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes. Add the celery, carrots, potato and jicama and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
2. Add the stock, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper (to taste). Bring to a light boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the cooked chicken; simmer for a few minutes until chicken is heated. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth with a slotted spoon and set aside in a casserole dish.
4. Increase the heat to medium. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place all but 1 tablespoon flour in a medium bowl and gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended and not lumpy.
5. Add the milk mixture to the broth in the pot and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
6. Transfer mixture back into the casserole dish (11 x 7-inch baking dish would work). and bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the biscuits . . .

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 Tblsp brown sugar (white sugar would work as well)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 cup minced rosemary
 2/3 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 large egg

7. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife and combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.
8. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in rosemary.
9. Combine buttermilk and egg in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir just until moist.
10. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; pat to 3/4-inch-thick. Cut into round biscuits approx. 3 inches in diameter using a round cookie cutter or a water glass (like I did).  
11. Remove dish from the oven and place biscuits on top.
12. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown on top and the potpie filling is bubbling.
13. Remove from oven, cool slightly, serve and enjoy!