Barrister Bites

BARRISTER BITES By: Angelia Morie Nystrom, JD, LLM

UT Foundation – Institute of Agriculture

CHICKEN COBBLER: COMFORT IN A BOWL

When the weather gets cold, I love “comfort foods”… those foods that make us warm inside, that make us close our eyes and feel better about life. I know that I am not alone. Studies have been done about why we gravitate toward certain foods in certain situations… and whether they can be emotionally beneficial. Dr. Shira Gabriel, Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY University of Buffalo, conducted a study about comfort food. She concluded that food and family go hand in hand and that we naturally associate the idea of comfort food with meals that were prepared and served to us in childhood. She stated, “It’s all about food that was made for us by people who love us. There is a strong relationship to what you were served as a kid and the food that we later on associate with comfort food as adults. It brings back feelings of being loved and well cared for.”

With actual research that proves it, it only stands to reason that I love a good chicken pot pie when the weather gets cold. When I was a child, my mom often served us chicken pot pie when there was snow on the ground or when it was particularly cold outside. There was something special about the flakiness of the crust and the warmth of the gooey inside on a cold day.

My mom’s version of chicken pot pie was the individual ones that came in the boxes from Banquet. My sister and I loved those… and I loved the fact that, if I was quick enough, I could eat the crust from the edges of hers without anyone seeing me… and then claim that hers must have been broken when it came out of the box. It was the perfect meal on a cold day.

Things apparently were similar in the Nystrom house when Hugh was a child. When the recent cold weather hit, Hugh told me that he wanted us to make chicken pot pie. He said that his mom did that for them when it was cold and he thought that it would be a real treat for us to do.

Unless you count opening the Banquet box and baking a pre-made pie in the oven, I had no experience with chicken pot pie… and neither did Hugh. We do have access to a bunch of cookbooks and to the internet and more recipes than we could ever make. As luck would have it, Hugh’s sister had given us a basket of goodies for Christmas (she’s a great cook… so it was a real treat) that included a box of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix. Hugh scoured the internet and found a recipe for chicken cobbler that used a box of that very mix.

Although not technically a pot pie, Hugh was convinced that this “chicken cobbler” would taste just like the chicken pot pies that we remembered as kids. We decided to give it a try.

This recipe requires 4 cups chicken (cooked and shredded), 1 stick of butter, 12 oz frozen peas and carrots, 1 small onion (diced), 2 cups milk, 1 box Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix, a 10 oz can of cream of mushroom soup, and 1 ½ cups chicken broth. For the chicken, I purchased two rotisserie chickens at The Fresh Market, removed the skin, and pulled enough chicken off to fill the bottom of the casserole dish. I only used the breast meat and saved the legs for Trace to eat later. To prepare the cobbler, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, melt one stick of butter (1/2 cup) and pour into the bottom of a 9x13 casserole pan. Sprinkle the shredded chicken evenly over the butter. Then, sprinkle the diced onions over the chicken, to taste. Hugh is not a huge onion fan, so I only used about half of the diced onions. Layer frozen carrots and peas over the chicken. (I used an entire bag and worried that I had too many vegetables. When it baked, I did not. It was the perfect amount.)

In a separate bowl, stir together the Red Lobster biscuit mix and milk. I added the seasoning packet to it and used whole milk. Pour the milk/biscuit mix over chicken. Although you will be tempted, do NOT stir.

Then, mix together a can of cream of mushroom soup and the chicken broth. Pour over the top of the casserole. Again, do NOT stir.

It will look very liquid-y, but this is normal. I wondered if I needed to pour off some of the soup/ chicken broth mixture… but I did not. Just be sure that your pan is not so full that it will bubble out into the oven.

Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Continue to bake for additional 10 minute intervals until the biscuit mix across the top is baked and golden brown around the edges. It took mine about an hour to bake in a convection oven.

This recipe takes a total of about 10 minutes to prepare and about an hour to bake. It is one of the easiest dinners I have ever made.

When the chicken cobbler came out of the oven, it smelled just like the chicken pot pies that I remembered as a child. When we tasted it, it was nearly the same as I remember….only a little better. After dinner, Trace said, “This is a keeper.” We ate it for three days… until it was gone. The leftovers were just as good as it was the day it came out of the oven.

Chicken cobbler was pure comfort in a bowl… and it will likely make a reappearance as soon as we get another round of cold weather.

SIMPLE THIINGS, continued from page 21

Historical Foundation), available at https://armyhistory.org/the-purpleheart-the-story-of-americas-oldest-military-decoration-and-some-soldierrecipients/#:~:text=First%2C%20it%20is%20the%20oldest,Army%20during%20 the%20American%20Revolution. 6 National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, History, https://www.thepurpleheart.com/ history/, last visited Jan. 10, 2023. 7 Borsch, supra n. 1. 8 Id.; Army Distinguished Service Medal, https://www.rollofhonor.org/public/ htmldetails.aspx?Cat=award&EntID=3868; Charles Augustus Doyen, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/16482, last visited Jan. 10, 2023. 9 The Hall of Valor Project, Pfc. Leo F. McGuire, https://valor.militarytimes.com/ hero/13511, last visited Jan. 10, 2023. 10 Charles Augustus Doyen, supra n. 8. 11 National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, supra n. 6. 12 Borsch, supra n. 1. 13 Id. 14 Borsch, supra n. 1. 15 National Purple Heart Honor Roll, Timeline, supra n. 6. 16 Army Regulation 600-8-22, Personnel-General Military Awards, p. 24 (Mar. 5, 2019), available at https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ ARN18147_R600_8_22_admin2_FINAL.pdf. 17 Id. 18 Id. 19 USO, 9 Things You Need to Know About the Purple Heart Medal (Aug. 1, 2022), https://www.uso.org/stories/2276-8-purple-heart-facts#:~:text=According%20 to%20the%20National%20Purple,award%20was%20created%20in%201782., last visited Jan. 10, 2023. 20 National Purple Heart Honor Roll, supra n. 6.