Buffalo Chicken Biscuits

Week one of lockdown. Six people. Three bedrooms. One kitchen. One bathroom and a half. The math doesn't work. The math has never worked. We are making it work the way you make anything work when you have no choice: with stubbornness, schedule, and an unholy amount of cooking.

The schedule: Marcus and Jasmine at the dining table for virtual school, 8 AM to 3 PM. Isaiah and Zoe at the kitchen table (MY kitchen table, now a classroom) for virtual school from their district in Marietta, same hours. Derek in the bedroom on calls. Me in the... where? Everywhere. Nowhere. I hold virtual counseling sessions from the car in the driveway because it's the only place with privacy and a door that locks. I sit in my Honda Civic at 10 AM talking to a seventh grader about anxiety while my own anxiety sits in the passenger seat like an uninvited guest.

The cooking. Oh, the cooking. Three meals a day for six people. Twenty-one meals a week. I have never cooked this much in my life, and I cooked through a funeral. Breakfast: eggs, toast, fruit, assembly-line efficiency. Lunch: sandwiches, soup, leftovers. Dinner: the real meal, the anchor, the thing that holds the day together. The first week I made: chili Monday, chicken stir-fry Tuesday, spaghetti Wednesday, tacos Thursday (Marcus's recipe — he's on rotation now), baked chicken Friday, pizza Saturday (homemade, because delivery is both expensive and terrifying in a pandemic), and Sunday dinner. Always Sunday dinner.

Sunday dinner the first week: Mama's fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread. The recipe that means home. Six people at a table that barely fits in a townhouse that barely fits and the chicken was perfect and the greens were right and the cornbread was Jasmine's and nobody talked about the virus during dinner because the dinner table is a sanctuary and the sanctuary does not allow fear. It allows food. It allows family. It allows the beautiful pretense that everything is fine, for one hour, at one table, and the pretense is not a lie — it's a practice. The practice of being okay. The practice of eating. The practice of showing up at the stove because your mother told you not to stop.

Baked chicken was Friday’s job — the meal that closed out the school week and said we made it. But some Fridays the week had taken too much and I needed something that felt like a hug and still came together in under an hour. These Buffalo Chicken Biscuits were that recipe: the biscuit pulling on the same warmth as Sunday’s cornbread, the chicken carrying enough heat to feel intentional. It wasn’t Mama’s fried chicken, but it held the table the same way — and on week three of lockdown, holding the table was everything.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (rotisserie works perfectly)
1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing, for serving

Instructions

Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.
Make the buffalo chicken. In a medium bowl, toss the shredded chicken with buffalo wing sauce and melted butter until evenly coated. Stir in the sliced celery and green onions. Set aside.
Mix the biscuit dough. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder. Cut in the cold cubed butter using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 3/4 cup of the shredded cheddar. Add the milk and stir just until a shaggy dough comes together — do not overmix.
Shape the biscuits. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it to about 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 12 rounds using a 2-1/2-inch biscuit cutter, or cut into squares with a knife. Place on the prepared baking sheet.
Top and bake. Spoon the buffalo chicken mixture generously over the top of each biscuit. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar over everything. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until biscuits are golden and cooked through and the cheese is bubbling.
Serve. Transfer to a platter and drizzle with ranch or blue cheese dressing, or serve dressing on the side for dipping. Best eaten warm, at a table full of people.

Nutrition (per serving)

Buffalo Chicken Biscuits — The Dinner That Holds the Day Together