Country Style Creamy Stew with Biscuits - A Clever Way to Use up Your Christmas Leftover!

&version;Can't believe that it's mid-December soon! Are we counting down to Christmas?
I love Christmas! To me, it is like a month of cooking and baking for my friends and family.
To most of us, December is also a month of feasting and be merry. And of course, the food that we eat for this joyous festive has to be appetising and comforting like the traditional roast turkey, honey glazed ham and pork roast with crispy crackling.
Due to the fact there is only the three of us, we don't celebrate our Christmas with traditional mega-size 5 kg roast turkey, 4-8 kg glazed ham or 3 kg pork roast! Imagine... the three of us would have to eat so much meat! That will be so mad!!!
However, I might bake a glazed ham this year because Coles has been flashing a lot of their ham offer on TV!
"Can you bake glazed ham for us?" My husband has been asking me this same old thing whenever the Coles ham advertisement is on. Alright!

Hence, I did a market survey at Coles and Woolies and found the smallest ham is at least 4 kg and this means that I will have heaps of leftover ham after Christmas!!! Hmmm...
What am I going to do with more than 3 kg of leftover ham? I can freeze them... Then? Make tonnes of ham sandwiches? Gosh! Maybe I can find a baby ham that is smaller than 4kg. Hmmm.... hopefully!
Here, I have a fantastic recipe to use any leftover from Christmas. Yes... I can transform about 500g of my Christmas leftover into this impressive comforting country style stew with biscuits!!!
.... with lots of vegetables. Nice and healthy!
.... with not too rich but just creamy tasty gravy. Warm and comforting!
.... with crispy buttery biscuits. Oh! So yummy!
.... all prepared and baked within an hour or less than two. Easy!

You want to know more about this recipe?

Country Style Creamy Stew with Biscuits
A clever and impressive way to use up your Christmas leftover!

This recipe originates from Barefoot Contessa at here but instead of cooking the chicken from scratch, I have added roasted chicken into the stew. And I can do the same with 500g shredded roasted turkey or cubed ham.
Watch this video to see how I assembled and baked this stew. It is so easy!!! And you wouldn't even realize that this impressive yummy stew is actually made with your leftovers!!!

With an hour or less than 2 hour, this stew with biscuits is all baked and ready to serve!

Don't you think that this simple and easy stew looks pretty festive too?

With crispy buttery biscuits, this creamy stew is very comforting to eat.

I would highly recommend this recipe. Will you?

I hope that you will have a great time cooking and baking for your family and Christmas!
Merry Baking! :)

Like my bakes and want more recipes and cooking / baking tips, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids
Here's my simplified recipe that is very modified from Barefoot Contessa.

Serve 4

For the stew:

500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
30g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter1 tbsp (15 ml) vegetable oil
1 brown onion, peeled and diced into 1-2 cm pieces
30g (3 tbsp) plain / all purpose flour
120ml (1/2 cup) cooking cream with 18% fat
salt and freshly ground black pepper to season500g (about 2 1/2 cups) shredded roasted chicken*
250g button mushrooms (about 8 medium), cleaned and roughly sliced
1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced**2 cup corn kernel***
2 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

* can be replaced with shredded roasted turkey (without the stuffing) or cubed ham. If you are using roasted chicken, 500g is about half a large roast chicken with no stuffing and skin removed.

** carrots will be slightly crunchy even after 35 mins of baking. If you prefer your carrots to be soft, blanch them for about 2-3 mins before adding them into the stew.*** can be replaced with frozen peas or 1/2 cup corn kernel plus 1/2 cup frozen peas if desired.

For the biscuits:

150g (1 cup) self raising flour****, plus more for rolling and shaping
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
60g (1/4 cup) cold unsalted butter90ml (6 tbsp) cold cream with 18% fat*****

**** If unavailable, can be replaced with 150g plain / all purpose flour plus 1/2 tbsp baking powder. This adequate amount of baking powder will make the biscuits rise well but the biscuits will have a mild metallic aftertaste. It is always better to use self-raising flour.

***** It can be the same cooking cream that you used to cook the stew or 45ml (3 tbsp) cold whipping cream with 35% fat with 45ml (3 tbsp) cold milk

For the egg wash:1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 190°C / 375°F.

To cook and bake the stew:In a small saucepan, heat chicken stock without boiling it.Place butter and vegetable oil in a large pot and cook with low heat until butter is melted. Cook onions over medium-low heat for 10 min or until translucent. Do not brown the onions.Add flour and cook over low heat with constant stirring for about 2 mins. Add hot chicken stock. Stir and allow mixture to simmer at low heat for about 1 min or until thickened. Remove from heat.

Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper. Then, stir in chicken, mushrooms, carrots, corn, peas (if you like) and parsley. Transfer stew into a large round or oval or square or rectangular baking dish with more than 1.5 L (or 1.6 quart) capacity. Place baking dish on a baking tray lined with baking paper just in case there is any splatter or dribble when the stew is baking. Bake for 15 mins.To make the biscuits:

While the stew is baking, make the biscuits. Combine flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add butter and use your fingertips to rub butter into the flour mixture until mixture resembles pea-size crumbs. Add cold cream (without or with milk - see the above *****) and combine the crumbs to form a dough. Do not over-work dough. Please note that the dough can be wet and sticky.

To assemble:Transfer dough onto a well-floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll dough to 1 cm or 3/8-inch thick. Cut out 8-9 rounds with a 5 cm / 2-inch round cutter.

Remove the stew from the oven and arrange biscuits on top of the stew. Brush with egg wash and bake again for another 20-30 mins or until the biscuits are brown and the stew is bubbly.

Serve immediately. Enjoy!Happy BakingPlease support me and like me at Facebook...