- Biscuits
- 2-½ cups White Lily self-rising flour
- 1–2 tsp sugar, (1 tsp will just enhance browning, 2 tsps you'll start to taste)
- 1 stick butter, frozen
- 1 cup buttermilk, cold
- melted butter
- Stew
- ½ lb bacon, chopped into lardons
- 2 cups aromatic vegetables, such as fennel, shallots, carrots
- ½ lb mushrooms, cut large
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, dredged in flour
- 1 can beer, lager or brown ale
- herbs, like thyme or maybe sage
ingredients
directions
1. Put flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Using the big holes on a box grater, grate the butter into the into the dry ingredients. Put the bowl into the freezer |
2. Brown the bacon in a dutch oven. When it’s crispy, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the hot bacon fat, brown the thighs on both sides. They don’t need to be cooked through, just browned. Set them aside, and pour off all but a few tablespoons of bacon fat. |
3. Add the vegetables to the fat and let them brown and soften. Add the mushrooms and let them cook some. Once they’ve softened, put the bacon & chicken back in the pot with their juices. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and herbs/spices. Preheat oven to 450˚. |
4. Pour beer into dutch oven, and enough water to cover. Bring it to a boil, then simmer until it reduces, about 30–40 minutes. |
5. In a separate pot, melt butter with herbs and pepper. Get the flour/butter mix out of the freezer, and barely mix in the buttermilk. Turn it all out onto a well-floured surface. Mold into a big lump, flour the surface, and rollout out to an inch thick. Flour the surface again, fold dough over on itself, and roll out again. Repeat for a total of four folds and roll it out to an inch thick one final time. Punch the biscuits out with a sharp circular cutter (or you can just cut them into squares with a knife. You can eke out a few more biscuits from the reassembled trimmings, but they’ll be under par, so those are yours. Refrigerate the biscuits. |
6. Float the uncooked biscuits on top of the stew. Brush the top with the herbed melted butter, and put the entire pot into your oven. Cook for 20–25 minutes until the biscuits are nice and brown on top. |
Notes
 Homemade White Lily self-rising flour: whisk together 2-1/2 cups cake flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. |
