What's Cookin': Shredded Meat & Biscuit Casserole

No pic, because I'm a horrible blogger. Use your imagination. It's good for you! ;)

I need to go grocery shopping, but that's not til Thursday so these next few days are my "what can I make with what I have" days. Tonight was one such meal. I had leftover pork roast and about a cup of spaghetti sauce. I have been wanting bread things lately (thus my baking itch) so decided to do something with my usual biscuit recipe, added some stuff to it and made up the rest.

We sat down to eat and once Ben tried it he asked "Is this a Whatcha Got Casserole?" A question like that usually ends with him scrunching his face and saying something like "ah... yeah I could tell." However, tonight I told him yes, it was and he said that it was really good for a Whatcha Got. So here is what I came up with.

Shredded Meat & Biscuit Casserole - makes about 6 servings
4-5 C shredded meat (I had pork, could use chicken or beef as well)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 C spaghetti or tomato sauce
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 C shredded cheddar

Biscuit Topping:
2 C flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbs shortening (or butter, or half of each)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 C shredded cheddar
1 C milk (or sour milk, or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease a 9 x 9 casserole dish. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbs oil over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft. Add pork and sauce. Stir until thoroughly mixed. (You may need to add a bit of water, I used about 1/2 cup). Turn to low and simmer while you make the topping.

In a large bowl combine first 4 biscuit ingredients. Cut in the shortening until mix resembles corn meal. Stir in the garlic and cheese, then add the milk. Stir until just combined. Spread the meat mixture in the bottom of the casserole dish, sprinkle with shredded cheese and spoon the biscuit topping over it, spreading to evenly cover top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and dough is no longer gooey*.

Notes & Variations: This was so simplistically delicious that I wouldn't change much. You could add extra veggies if you wanted, but I liked it the way it was. However, you could change up the spices and come up with an Asian version (with soy, ginger, hoisen), or a Southwestern version (with BBQ sauce, or chili powder, or taco season), etc.

*I popped it in for my usual 15 minute biscuits time and the center was still a little doughy underneath. I put it back in for another 5ish minutes and it was fine after that.

Ben Rating: 3.5-4. Not bad for a Whatcha Got, and we all had seconds.