I am not a denier of dreams.
I am not a hater of hope.
I am not a heartbreaker.
No.
So when, last year, due to certain technical miscarriages of justice, I lost a number of SB posts to some Internet black hole, I didn’t think much of it.
But then something happened…
I started to get emails. Facebook messages. Tweets. Twits. All about a certain recipe for Chipotle Sweet Potato Skillet Biscuits.
Again I didn’t think much of it.
But the volume grew. I began to see sweet potatoes in my dreams. Smoke signals on the horizon. All painted with one unavoidable message:
“M., get in that dang kitchen and make those dang Chipotle Sweet Potato Skillet Biscuits again. Photograph it. Blog about it. And stop being a dasher of all that is right and good in this world!”
I really never knew smoke signals could be that long. You guys are gifted.
It was this recent comment that finally pushed me over the biscuit dough precipice:
So polite! And she has company coming!
Catherine, thank you so much for the gentle reminder to do the right thing.
My Valentine to you and all the other Chipotle Sweet Potato Skillet Biscuit lovers out there? The recipe. Finally!
And what a recipe it is.
Make your kitchen smell good.
Make your tummy feel great.
Give your Valentine something to be pretty happy about.
So tell me true: are we square?
Friends again?
Is there any way that you could, uh, stop sending dancing chipotles and sweet potatoes to haunt my dreams?
Thanks much.
And Happy Valentine’s! Meagan
Chipotle Sweet Potato Skillet Biscuits
1/4 c. unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
3 c. all-purpose flour
3 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. sweet potato puree (Please see below for instructions on preparing the puree, but note that one large sweet potato yielded approximately the one cup that I needed.)
2 c. buttermilk
4 chipotle chiles
melted butter for brushing
Preheat oven to 475°.
Grease a 10″ cast iron skillet and set aside.
Place buttermilk in a medium bowl and submerge chiles. Set aside to soak for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato(es) and cut into several small pieces. Place into a pot of boiling water and boil until fork-tender, approximately 20 minutes. Drain cooked potato pieces and mash with a fork. Set aside to cool.
Place the flour, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse-process just to blend. Please note that you don’t want to proceed with this next step involving the butter until you have your chipotle-infused buttermilk and sweet potato puree ready, so now is a good time to stop and attend to those things. To finish the buttermilk, simply remove and discard the chiles. Once the sweet potato puree and infused buttermilk are ready, add the butter to the flour mixture and process until a coarse meal forms. Remove the meal to a large bowl. Fold in the sweet potato puree and then pour in the buttermilk. At this point, I find that the best thing to use for mixing is simply clean hands. Work the dough gently until all the ingredients are incorporated. Once a uniform dough has formed, pinch off small balls and place them in a ring around the edge of the prepared pan. Place two final biscuits in the center (don’t sweat it if you don’t have exactly 10 biscuits; you can either let them go the way they are or pinch little bits off of the formed biscuits to get 10 biscuits). The edges of the biscuits can be touching in the pan. Place the entire pan in the oven and bake for 17 minutes. Remove, brush generously with melted butter and bake for 2 additional minutes. Cool slightly or serve immediately.
YIELD: 10 large biscuits
i confess i rarely get such a strong urge to make something i just read in a post. I often enjoy the things i see and read. and usually they tip of a desire to make something else somehow related.. but i really really want to make chipotle sweet potato skillet biscuits…
I can see why people begged for this recipe. Looks delish!
Yay yay yay!!!! Thank you SO much for putting this up. Can’t wait to make these.
What a cool post and the biscuits look to die for!
Oh wow! These are the most delightful biscuits ever! I love these wonderful flavors…fantastic!
I’ve never had sweet potato biscuits, but I love pairing sweet potato with peppers! This sounds like a wonderful dish
I still have some monster sweet potatoes stored from our garden. I was just thinking I needed to revisit my “Sweet Potato-palooza” postings. I love this recipe!!!!! You are great!
Sounds like a great creation with the chipotle! I can not wait to give this recipe a try.
Oh my goodness… these biscuits look beautiful!
Meagan, I think you did the right thing..now I have to try making them since they look so amazingly tempting and delicious!!!
This looks awesome!!! But is it possible to make it if you don’t have a food processor?
…And who but Scarletta would be making the tip-toppest position of FoodBuzz for her Black Bean Brownies featured yesterday! Yay on you!
Thanks, Lane! And, yes, these biscuits would work without a food processor. Just cut your chilled butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or fork, mix in your sweet potato puree with a spoon or hand-held mixer, and then work the dough to a uniform consistency with your hands as you add the buttermilk.
mmmmm I love chipotle! and camote (sweet potatoe) too, great idea! these looks delicious!
I mean potato
I have to improve my English
These look amazing, I’d love to top a chicken pot pie with them.
Scarletta: These sound so good! I love sweet potatoes.
I can’t have chili’s or peppers.
So I think I’ll put in some cayenne pepper.
Also what you said about smoke signals ………….. I think I’ll throw in about 1/2 – 3/4 of a tsp. of liquid smoke … just so there is just a hint.
I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Great idea on the liquid smoke, Charlie! Do let me know how they turn out…
Hi Meagan..
I am Catherine’s mother and she and I are both so excited! She, because she is going to make these biscuits, me because I am going to get to eat them and finally because she was so excited to see her messages to you on your blog! We both giggled, smiled and laughed to see her message in print. Thank you for making my daughter so happy!
You are so very welcome, Alice! You have such a lovely family! And I truly hope that you all enjoy these biscuits. Thanks so very much for reading SB!!
Fascinating to infuse buttermilk with chipotles. Of course, I couldn’t throw the chilies out — they’d have to have a second life in something (enchilada sauce, perhaps)
I’ve never seen dried chipotle chilies. Could I substitute canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce?
Sure! I don’t see why not. You may want to rinse the chiles before soaking in the buttermilk. But you could also leave some of the adobo sauce on the chiles; it would probably be a nice flavor addition.
Dearest Meagan aka Scarletta — many blessings and thanks so much for doing all that was necessary to repost this recipe! The rest of the story — my sweet husband has a need for “more iron” in his diet. Sweet potatoes are a staple at our dinner table and the cast iron skillet a plus in cooking and baking ( it really does add iron to the food!) And finally, newly met friends are coming to dinner for the first time! All of this culminates in the sos message I sent you yesterday. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and Happy Valentine’s Day to you! P.S. Thank you also for taking time to read your blog messages
Absolutely my pleasure, Catherine! And I will tell you that I saved one of the batches of these biscuits that I tested to serve to my husband last night and he went NUTS over them. I hope your husband and company enjoy them just as much. Thanks so much for reading!!
Losing posts is an awful thing but if it results in recreating this little number, I guess that was the silver lining. These look great!