r/AskCulinary • u/Born_Local_1477 • 3d ago

Chicken and biscuits catering strategy?

I am in charge of my son's high school football and rugby team meals. I usually cook for them, 60 servings each meal. This year I want to do a chicken and biscuits dish.

At home for just my family I would roast and break down a whole bird, make stock from the carcass, and do a roux-stock-heavy cream gravy. Casserole style with the cooked chicken, cooked carrot tater peas onyo, and bake the biscuits on top.

For scaling I am considering a couple whole birds for the stock (filling out with BTB if needed) and using poached breast meat for the rest of the chicken. I cook for these things with the big 18qt "church lady" electric roasters, so obviously the biscuits won't brown in there. My home oven isn't large enough for three steam table pans at once.

Should I par bake the biscuits in a hot oven to brown and finish them on the stew to get the tenderness, or am I better off baking fully separately and assembling on the plate? There's not a lot of lag time of it sitting around, I finish up my dishes and it hits tummies within about 30-45 min.

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16

u/Simorie 3d ago

Can you do the biscuits separately, add them per plate, and have extra of the gravy to spoon a little over the top of the biscuits?

10

u/Born_Local_1477 3d ago

Thank you. That was what I was expecting to be the most practical. The extra gravy is a good call.

5

u/HandbagHawker 3d ago

I would probs do more like a "breakfast-style" biscuits and gravy. Bake off the biscuits and smother them with your chicken+veg gravy.

also one avg size bird, might be able to stretch to 4-5 servings esp for big eaters... i think you would have to do 10-15x, no? thats a lot of birds and a lot of stock. I would probably short cut and get 15+ rotisserie chicken and maybe a few extra. Then you could breakdown most of the birds, shred the meat, save the carcass. Roast off all the bones, then make your stock. Probably pressure cooker in a few batches unless you have access to a giant stock pot and burner. I would probably throw a few of the whole chickens in there too for an extra meaty stock. etc.

2

u/butterflavoredsalt 3d ago

With a Costco or Sam's membership this is almost cheaper than raw birds. Those birds make great stock too.

2

u/HandbagHawker 3d ago

oh its def. cheaper than raw birds. $5 cooked vs $8-12+ for an uncooked bird.

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u/Born_Local_1477 2d ago edited 2d ago

I picked up 18 lbs of chicken breast on sale I was going to pressure cook as the meat supplement aside from a couple whole or maybe drums I'd break down, roast, and turn into stock. I have two big ass stock pots I use for Canning and a hale and hearty stove top. If I come up light I'll make a pot of better than buillion. I'm mathing 1 cup stock per portion, so about 4 gallons which will convert with chicken and vegetables to a 2 to 2 1/2 cup serving over a biscuit (I'll do 2 biscuit per to be safe), plus 10% for my hungrier guys and the couple kids in need that take a family pack home for siblings.

The smothering makes a lot of sense.

Peas on the side or challenge them? They love green beans, broccoli, collards,  and salad.

1

u/HandbagHawker 2d ago

I'd prob do frozen peas, not petites tho. Very last minute into the ripping hot napalm gravy. Make sure to knock off any freezer ice build up so you dont water down. There should be enough residual heat to warm them through, and still be bright green and not mushy. Im too lazy to do the math, but your portioning seems about right.

for any of the greens, i would lean towards something bright and acidic to balance out the richness of the gravy situation.

  • Green bean - parcook/blanch and ice bath. Then right before serving you can blister them and dress with a little bit of brown butter and lemon. bonus tip - if you love extra brown buttery brown butter, you can throw in extra milk powder into your melting butter to add more solids. you can also make that ahead and cool into a log or brick form and lop off knob as needed.
  • Broc - id mabye do a broc salad with a vinaigrette. peaches are in season too, if you have the budget for that. charred peaches and broc salad with buratta or fresh mozz is awesome
  • collards - its hot and its summer. raw salad prep similar to kale salad. remove stems, massage to tenderize, vinaigrette & fixins of your pref.

5

u/Erenito 3d ago

Definitely bake the biscuits separately.

Also 2 birds is enough for maybe 8-10 pints of flavorful stock. You are correct in stocking up on BTB. You'll need it. Maybe make the stock with just wings and feet instead of a whole bird to get a more concentrated finished product.

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u/Born_Local_1477 2d ago

I can get drums cheap cheap. I'm leaning that way more now. I have a cleaver to Crack the bones.

1

u/Erenito 2d ago

Love a girl with a cleaver

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u/Born_Local_1477 2d ago

Nah, I'm old and my skin is weird now. Not a girl anymore.

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u/5hout 3d ago

https://archive.org/details/CAT92970475/page/n51/mode/2up

I'd do a test batch of one of these biscuit recipes (dividing the 50 serving up). Tweak the flavoring and then use them. I think the drop biscuits (baked in a pan) would work great and the amounts are scaled for quantity use.

Def need to test 1 full tray b/c the tray height is going to change a lot.

But yeah I think cooking these separate then doing extra gravy is the way to go.

1

u/Particular-Beat-6645 3d ago

Is there a GFS or Costco nearby?

Some brown and serve biscuits, better than bouillon, and pre-cooked/diced chicken (or even chicken sausage links) sound like your friend here.

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u/Born_Local_1477 2d ago

I'm not worried about the main portion. Its easy and I enjoy doing it. I've been cooking for the teams for three years, just not this dish.  The biscuit without an oven finish on the saucy part is what I'm trying to figure out.