Poor me chicken and biscuits

Chicken second courses

If you're sick, sad, or have a case of the Mondays, this is possibly the world's most perfect comfort food. It's warm, soothing, and carb-y and made all in one pot so there's no trashing your kitchen. 'Cause if you are sad or sick or grumpy, lots of dirty dishes can make you sadder or sicker or grumpier (that's a well-known scientific fact). The recipe is also infinitely variable so you can use it to clean out your crisper/cold cellar. Traditionally, you would probably include celery, but my sons don't like celery so I left it out. But you can pretty much use whatever vegetables you have lying about—broccoli stems, chard, regular potatoes. If you want to make it vegetarian, you can just throw in some beans and use vegetable broth. And whatever biscuit recipe makes you happy should work just fine—just cook it per the recipe's directions. For this version, I used the Cooks' Illustrated Science of Cooking drop biscuit recipe because it takes one bowl and they come out so fluffy and buttery you'll instantly get over whatever head-cold you have. Note 1: if you make the chicken soup/stew ahead of time, please make sure it is hot when you go to cook the biscuits. I know that sounds fairly self-evident, but speaking from sad, sad experience, you will end up with burned biscuit tops and doughy biscuit bottoms.... it defeats the whole purpose of trying to cook something to make you feel better. Note 2: There is no shame in eating the bottom off of all the biscuits - because that's the best part. They cook in delicious broth and get dumpling-esque (totally made that word up) on the bottom while still retaining the biscuit structure on top. This will make you feel better, no matter what the problem. So snitch away!