Chicken Dumpling Casserole

When I saw this pin I thought to myself  "Man, this would be so much easier than making chicken and dumplings in the crock pot or the stove top!"

The recipe was simple enough and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here are the directions:

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled and shredded*
2 cups chicken stock (from boiling the breasts above) 
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) 
2 cups Bisquick or self-rising flour
2 cups 2% milk (whatever you prefer)
1 can cream of chicken soup (the herbed cream of chicken soup adds lots more flavor)
3 t. Wylers chicken granules or 3 bouillon cubes
1/2 t. dried sage 
1 t. black pepper & salt, as desired 

 (*you can use any chicken you choose this is simply what we use most often)

Ingredients assembled!

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in sauce pan with enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat; place a lid on your pot and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to finish cooking.

Boiling the chicken breasts with bouillon

Remove chicken from stock (reserve the stock) and allow to cool, then shred the chicken. 
When building the layered casserole, do not mix the layers. 

Layer 1 - In 9x13 casserole dish, melt 1 stick of butter.  Spread shredded chicken over butter.   Sprinkle black pepper and dried sage over this layer.  Note: If you want to serve this as a pot pie, add a layer of vegetables now. 

Melted butter. Healthy!

Who has sage? I just used black pepper. 

Layer 2 - In small bowl, mix milk and Bisquick. Slowly pour over chicken.

Soup mixtures and Bisquick mixture. That's a lot of Bisquick...

Layer 3 - In medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups of the chicken stock (strained, if needed), chicken granules and soup. Once blended, slowly pour over the Bisquick layer. (Tip - Add some of the hot stock to the soup can to help melt the soup and get it all out of the can).

I am wary of making the Bisquick the second layer...

Bake casserole for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

25-30 minutes at 350? Yeah right. Try over an hour at 375-400. 

__________________________

I will say, it smelled delicious! And it looked good. 

But chicken and dumplings? It was not. The Bisquick was simultaneously too goopy and too overdone. I think it would have worked better as the top layer. It had the consistency of a Banquet Homestyle Bake. My husband had seconds but after one bowl I was sort of sick to my stomach. 

I would say this one was more of a miss than a hit.