Douglas Kitchen Odyssey: Beef Pot Pie with Cheddar Biscuits

Sean always finds great recipes from Food & Wine- such as this pot pie which was delicious and comforting. We made a few minor changes, and halved the recipe to make just one large pot pie. This isn't your typical pot pie with actual pie crust, rather it is topped with cheddar biscuit batter that bakes along with the pie filling. It is much easier than going through the process of making a pie crust from scratch, in my opinion. And the result is delicious fluffy biscuits on top of the savory chunky filling. Yum!

Ingredients:

Pot Pie Filling:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 lb carrots, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 lb celery root or parsnips, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 lb ground beef
2 Italian sausage links, removed from casing
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/8 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
5 oz frozen peas (about a cup)
salt and pepper

Biscuit Topping: Follow our cheddar garlic biscuit recipe, eliminating the garlic and reducing the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter and add the oil. Saute the carrots and celery root or parsnips with 1/2 teaspoon of salt for about 10 minutes, turning the heat to medium-high. As you can see in the picture, we used celery root which had an amazing flavor, so I would definitely recommend it if you can find it at the store.

When the vegetables have softened and are slightly browned, add the ground beef and sausage with an additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt, breaking up the meat as it browns. Sprinkle in the thyme and rosemary. We used a handy fresh herb grater that we got as a Christmas gift to mince and add the herbs. Cook for about 10 minutes, until all the pink is gone and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in the flour and cook for 2 more minutes. Next add the milk and chicken stock, and simmer until thickened. (5-7 minutes)

Stir in the peas and cook a couple minutes longer, tasting for more salt and pepper. Pour the mixture in a 9x13 deep baking dish.

While the vegetable beef mixture is cooking, prepare your biscuit batter, following our recipe for cheddar biscuits as I mentioned above.

Place 12 even scoops of batter on top of your pie filling in the casserole dish. We used an ice cream scoop, and then added a little more to each one with the rest of the batter that was left.