my grandma's RECIPE my grandma's RECIPE

creamed chicken and pan-fried biscuits

CREAMED CHICKEN

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons minced yellow onion

8 skinless chicken drumsticks (or a whole cut up chicken)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon water

1 quart heavy cream optional: ¼ cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons corn starch

Heat oil in large fry pan on medium (a nonstick pan was used in this recipe). Add minced onion to oil and cook for two to three minutes or until just starting to brown.

Add chicken to pan and lightly season with some of the salt and pepper. Pour one tablespoon of water over the chicken, cover, and turn heat up to medium-high. Turn chicken when it starts to brown on one side — about two to three minutes each side.

When chicken is lightly browned on both sides, add one quart heavy cream and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper. Bring to just bubbling, then reduce heat to low and cover fry pan. The cream and chicken should be simmering or gently bubbling. Watch closely to make sure the cream doesn’t boil over. Cook for at least 30 minutes, but optimally this should cook for well over an hour. The lower and slower you cook this, the more tender your chicken will be.

The cream thickens and the chicken easily comes away from the bone when it has cooked long enough. Serve as is or, alternately, remove the meat from the bones and return meat to the sauce. For a thicker sauce, slowly add the cornstarch/water mixture, stirring constantly on medium heat until thick and bubbly with the cover removed. Remove from heat and serve over panfried biscuits.

Biscuits

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons minced yellow onion

1 can refrigerated biscuits (8 count)

Heat oil and minced onion on medium heat in a smaller non-stick fry pan.

Cut biscuit slices in half and arrange on top of the oil and onions in the fry pan. Pour one tablespoon of water into the pan, cover, and let cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, being careful not to remove the cover.

After 8-10 minutes (the biscuits should have started to puff), use a large spatula and flip the biscuits as one unit. Using a fork, separate the biscuits, then replace cover and cook for another 8-10 minutes. serves 4-6

When Jenny Davis asked her family which recipe from their grandma Evelyn Miller’s repertoire stood out in their minds, there was a resounding vote for her creamed chicken. Davis describes Miller as an equally good baker as she is a cook, with a kitchen open for helping out, and an equally open cupboard policy for snacking. And I saw for myself the love and pride she has for her family, their framed images decorating the walls of her and her husband’s home. The quintessential grandmother. Miller lovingly recalls a young Davis coming out to Montana for a visit to grandma and grandpa’s. Miller’s aversion to tuna fish somehow disappeared that visit when Davis set to work one day making, of all things, tuna fish. To Miller’s surprise, whatever Davis she did to it, it somehow changed her tune towards tuna fish.

Miller learned to cook on the family farm near Flasher, North Dakota, from her mother and grandmother, and honed her skills cooking for her own family of five. Whether it’s in her genes or skills honed from moving many times for her husband’s work managing Cenex stores when their kids were young, Miller is grounded and organized, even in the kitchen. Davis remembers her grandma’s ability to easily step in when she was needed to run the kitchen at Davis’ grandpa’s convenience store, and her ability to cook a huge family meal and the kitchen somehow remain tidy. Miller is easy-going and a great conversationalist. She welcomed me into her home and then cooked and fed me the perfect meal for the cold, rainy day that it was.

I watched granddaughter and grandmother make the chicken together, and as the creamed chicken was finishing up (Miller adding that if she had her druthers the chicken would be cooking on low for another hour) she began to open up a package of refrigerator biscuits. Pre-made biscuits seemed out of place after seeing the creamed chicken evolve from the ground up, everything done from scratch. But when Miller started cooking the biscuits in a fry pan with olive oil and more fresh minced onion, letting them sort of steam/fry cook, I saw the genius in it. It reminded me of French chef Jacque Pépin, author of, among others, Fast Food My Way. Pépin doesn’t scoff at utilizing canned ingredients in the place of fresh ones. Sometimes that’s all you’ve got time for, or all you have available.

There’s an art in taking something ordinary, and putting a spin on it that is all your own. And Miller’s spin on creamed chicken and biscuits is nothing short of art.

If you and your grandma (or another special lady) have a recipe you’d like to share, contact design@areawomanmagazine.com.