I've always had a vague hankering for what the Americans call 'Cobbler', I'd never eaten it before, but yet I knew, maybe from my previous life as an American pioneer (or are those memories of watching Little house?) that it would be hearty home food... to warm the cockles!
So when I saw a 'How to...' in my favorite food mag, I went for it...
My American readers may be falling around at this point, but remember in Europe things like Twinkies, Oreos and Cherry Coke are the exotic, the unknown... We don't have drive in movies, grits, diners, Cadillac cars, waitresses on roller skates, route 66, and all those lovely things that build America in my mind! We have themed American restaurants like you may have Irish ones, but those menus are usually burgers and buffalo wings so the Cobbler, be it fruit or fowl, is a lovely idea of what an American mother may place on the table for her hungry crowd... It is foreign, it is different and I wanted to make it!
It was delicious, but I definitely went overboard on the peas, and it needed more cream...But I got the idea, and will definately be perfecting this recipe...
I am writing this recipe from memory as I accidently gave the mag away without taking the recipe down so here is what I did, but my dear American friends might like to tell me how they might do it, so I can try again and hopefully come up with a more authentic cobbler!
Chicken Cobbler You'll need
4 large chicken thighs
100gms peas
2 leeks, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
Handful of parsley, chopped
200gms fresh cream
Half a stock cube
Method
Fry the chicken, with the onions and leeks, in plenty of olive oil until brown all over.
Add the peas, and the cream and then crumble in the stock cube.
Make the cobbler by mixing approximately 150gms of plain flour, 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda and 80/100mls of buttermilk.
Place the creamy chicken mix into an ovendish and plop handfuls of the cobbler mix on to the top. Brush the cobblers with beaten egg. Bake in a preheated oven until the chicken is cooked and cobbler nice and brown!
13 comments:
Lisa - That looks like a fabulous cobbler. And I love the idea of making it savory.
We do a lot of fruit cobblers around our house -- served warm with a scoop of icecream for dessert. But, I like the idea of a chicken cobbler. Kind of like what I call a "pot pie" only with the crust on top!
Looks like you got it just right! It looks really delicious! In the South we would either call it chicken pot pie or chicken and dumplings, depending on the kind of topping. Well done!
Maybe you could mail me a recipe or two for this style of cookin? I love american food - especially the southern style!!
My chicken pot pie always has a pie crust on bottom, and on the top. Fruit cobbler is pie crust on top. Fruit crisp is cumbly struesel-like topping on top.
This looks like chicken and dumplings, in a backing dish, with the dumpling batter spread over the top instead of cooked in a stew.
Either way, it looks really yummy! I think I'll try it this way next time I am hankering for creamy chicken, vegetables, and delcious crust... I never think about the fact that stuff I make all the time would be considered foreign by someone else. How funny!
I make a blackberry peach cobbler that's pretty good- but am intrigued by making it savory.
Its so interesting isn't it. The recipe I used was for "chicken cobbler" which I, having heard the term cobbler thrown around in the USA, presumed was American. After I looked into it further it turns out that cobbler is a savoury dish on this side of the pond, and it is that that the American fruit cobbler and of course Chicken pot pie developed from! Darn it! I really wanted to cook American "Mom" food... instead I inadvertently cooked some of our dear neighbors dishes... how annoying! Bleedin Heck! It was good though at least!
I have never heard of a savory cobbler before. Truthfully I have never had one sweet or savory. Like in Ireland Cobblers or cherry coke are not the norme here in Canada.
Funny. I read all the comments. Like the others, I have never heard of a savory cobbler. The only thing we ever has was chicken pot pie and it was some frozen thing we got when we had a babysitter. NOT anything I liked at all. My mom's usual meals for us included: Spaghetti and meatballs, taco night, BLT and deviled egg night, pot roast and mashed potatoes, hamburgers and fries.... She wasn't into experimenting much and this is just what she knew how to do. Add to that some of my grandmother's things.. chicken fried steak, salisbury steak, honey baked ham and macaroni and cheese.
I hear the word "Pot Roast" all the time on TV - What exactly is that?
Pot roast is the same as roast beef. You must have that there. Don't you? The main thing is to sear/brown the beef first and then cook it slowly in large roaster or pot in the oven allllll day!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BASIC-POT-ROAST-20096
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1536793
Normally my family makes gravy with the juices and puts it on the mashed potatoes. Possibly candied carrots or green beans on the side.
Another very middle American dish is pork chops.
Or either steak or chicken with corn on the cob and baked beans! This is usually a BIG crowd pleaser!!
Ok. I've never had sweet or savoury! I love the idea of it though!
Dinner at yours then Lis? :-)
Roast beef! Of course - I couldn't figure out the pot part. We call anything like that "a roast" plain and simple!
Defo Ciara, but we'll leave the Pot Roast off the menu for this one!! x
I know this is an old post but I am having so much fun reading about your American food obsession :-)
That's definitely chicken pot pie. I've only heard "cobbler" being used for fruit dessert with pastry on top. The Joy of Cooking cookbook has a wonderful section on American fruit desserts: cobbler, crisps, grunts, slumps, apple brown betty, etc. Either that or Betty Crocker would represent traditional American cooking.
I'd say chicken and dumplings is made with a drop biscuit (American biscuits, of course) topping that is in clumps, while pot pie has a top like a fruit pie, in a single sheet.
If you want to cook American "mom" food, you could go with pot roast with potatoes and carrots, or meatloaf with a side vegetable and mashed potatoes. And of course fried chicken with corn on the cob. Any kind of casserole would work too, or macaroni and cheese.
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