Yahoo Lifestyle This Is Our #1 Recipe of the Year (So Far)
It's a winning weeknight dinner.
There are only a handful of “perfect” meals, but ever since we published our recipe for TikTok Chicken Cobbler earlier this year, we’re convinced we’ve stumbled on at least one of them. Of the more than 100 recipes we’ve already created in 2023, Chicken Cobbler is by far the most popular: You can’t stop making it, and neither can we. What makes this casserole one of the best we’ve ever tried? It’s all about the ingredients.
See, chicken cobbler is a weeknight dinner hero because it relies almost exclusively on premade ingredients like cooked chicken, plus canned, boxed, and frozen foods. For a full list of ingredients including Italian seasoning mix and crispy fried onions, you can check out the official recipe, but here’s a quick rundown of Chicken Cobbler’s top three stars (you may even consider them the MVPs).
The Spruce Eats / Bahareh Niati
Store-Bought Rotisserie Chicken
Surely we don’t have to sell you on the brilliance of a precooked chicken, available at most grocery stores (we love Costco’s, too). And it’s ideal for this recipe, which calls for one entire chicken. Once you shred the meat, it all goes into the casserole: no need to deal with leftovers. You could even switch up the flavor profile in your Chicken Cobbler by buying the special varieties, like BBQ or Lemon Pepper.
Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix
A boxed biscuit mix is an easy shortcut for homemade biscuits. But this chicken cobbler makes it even simpler by eliminating the need to form and pre-bake the biscuits. All you have to do is mix the box with milk, seasoning, and cheese, and pour it all over the layers of chicken and straight-from-frozen vegetables. That’s it! Trust the magic that happens when the casserole bakes, and you’ll see why biscuit mix is a non-negotiable ingredient in this recipe. (Oh, and in case you can’t find Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix in your grocery store, we’ve come up with a darn-close substitute: Add one cup of shredded cheddar cheese and a teaspoon of garlic powder to two cups of basic Bisquick mix.)
Frozen Vegetables
Our recipe calls for an entire 16-ounce bag of frozen vegetable blend. That’s a lot of veggies for a simple casserole! Although we like to use a traditional blend including carrots, peas, corn, and green beans, you can switch it up based on whatever you feel like—or what happens to be in your freezer at the moment. Even swapping out a single type of veg would work. Trust us, nobody is going to be mad about a broccoli and cheddar combo.
What these ingredients have in common is their easy accessibility. All three are inexpensive, time-saving, and help make up a nutritious dinner. While we’re smitten with how they come together in Chicken Cobbler, they’re not the only path to a fast, healthy weeknight dinner. Check out our top 10 most popular weeknight dinners of all time, and get even more inspiration for home-cooked meals that won’t keep you in the kitchen until bedtime.
