The best thing about embarking on a mission to perfect one's biscuit making? You end up with an awful lot of delicious biscuits to eat. The worst thing? Holy heck, that's a lot of biscuits. I'm lucky enough to be married to an enthusiastic biscuit eater, but I don't want to try his patience too badly this early on, 'cause there are dozens more batches to be rolled out before the year is up.

Solution -- adapt one of his most dearly beloved dishes, his grandmother and mother's Memama and Mimiwag's Chicken & Dumplings a bit to accommodate extra biscuits as ersatz dumplings. The original recipe employs long, rolled strips of dough (which some have argued render it as a much more regionally specific Chicken & Pastry formation, but that's a whole 'nother post), but in lieu of that, I halved the biscuits (from the best batch thus far -- #6 White Lily All Purpose with 50/50 Lard/Butter) and stewed them into the sumptuous broth of a whole, cooked-down chicken until they were softened, but not soggy. That night, with a side of sauteed, vinegar-dashed Swiss chard, it was heaven. Two days later, plated with tangy collards -- otherworldy.

Have a favored use for extra biscuits? I beg of you, share it in the comments below.

Recipes is after the jump.



Chicken 'n Biscuit Dumplings

1 (3 to 4 lb) broiler-fryer chicken
2 quarts plus 1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1/3 stick of butter, melted
2 teaspoons black pepper
4-8 biscuits

Stew entire chicken in 2 quarts of water, adding two stalks of celery and a chopped onion to the water for flavor. Cook for about an hour, until the chicken is falling off the bone.

Remove the chicken from the pot and save the stock.
Cool the chicken, then remove bones, fat and skin.
Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and return to the stockpot.

Add the the butter and the pepper to the stock, stir, pull each biscuit in half, drop them into the pot and continue to stir gently.

Turn heat to low and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.