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Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

November 24, 2013 by Renee

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and Dumplings-2510It’s near 20 degrees in NYC today and the girls and I spent the day in the city at a blogging holiday party. We had tons of fun and afterwards, we wandered up Fifth Avenue to check out the holiday windows of the large department stores. They are always so lovely! But sadly, the cold was just too much for us and we had to call it quits before we turned into ice pops.

We made our way back to Penn Station and headed home shivering the entire time!

The best cure for cold weather is serious comfort food. Knowing that we are having roast turkey and mashed potatoes later in the week, we opted for a stew instead. But I didn’t want beef. Chicken and Dumplings seemed to be the perfect next choice and it was!

My aunt, in North Carolina, made the best Chicken and Dumplings growing up. She is a real down home, Southern kind of a lady and makes everyone feel welcome the moment they arrive, sweet tea in hand. Not only was her fried chicken the best, but the homemade bacon that they cured in their smokehouse was out of this world and I have never had better. But the real treat was her Chicken & Dumplings.  I remember how she rolled out her dumplings thin and cut them like pasta rather than dropping balls of dough by spoonfuls into a boiling cauldron of chicken stock. The result was a hearty stew with bite fulls of dense, dough, creamy sauce and chunks of herbed chicken. A very filling and a very comforting bowl.

I don’t have her recipe but I’ve been making them this way for years and they are reminiscent of the ones she made. I may not remember or know if they are as good as hers, but my family loves them and a 6.3 quart French Oven yielded just enough tonight that there was only one small bowl left over. But next time, I’ll have to make more dumplings- because that’s the first thing to go as everyone spoons them out of the pot and it’s good to have some leftover because  the dish is always better the next day!

Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
 
Print
Prep time
30 mins
Cook time
1 hour 45 mins
Total time
2 hours 15 mins
 
Chicken and Dumplings
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
For the Stock:
  • 1 3-4lb Whole Chicken ((You can use ¼'s or ⅛'s as well))
  • 2 stalks Celery (Chopped in large chunks)
  • 2 large Carrots (Chopped in large chunks)
  • 1 medium Onion (Diced)
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 2 sprigs Thyme (Leave whole)
  • 2 sprigs Rosemary (Leave whole)
  • 2 sprigs Sage (Leave whole)
  • 3 cloves Garlic (Finely chopped)
  • Salt and Pepper (To Taste)
  • Water (To Cover)
For the Dumplings:
  • 3 cups Self Rising Flour
  • 1½ cup Chicken Stock (Use the just made stock)
Method
  1. For the Stock. In a large pot (I used a 6.3 French Oven) over high heat, add the chicken, herbs and chopped vegetables. Add enough water to cover and submerge the chicken. Bring to a boil and lower the flame to medium-low heat and simmer for an hour and a half or until the chicken is fork tender. At this point, remove the whole chicken from the broth and set it aside to cool. Leave the broth on the low flame to continue simmering.
  2. Once you are able to touch the chicken, go ahead and remove the meat from the bones. Set aside the meat and discard the carcass.
  3. From the broth, remove the stems and stalks of the herbs. If you want, you can now also skim the top of the broth to remove any impurities. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. For the dumplings. Remove 1½ cups of stock from the pot and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, add the self-rising flour* and the stock. With a fork or your hands, knead the liquid into the flour to form a dough. Continue kneading until all the flour is incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it's about ¼" thick. Cut the dough into 2" squares with a knife.
  5. Turn up the heat on the stock and once it is boiling, drop the squares of dumplings into the pot, stirring so they do not stick together.
  6. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and stir to combine. Continue cooking for another 5-8 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through and the stock has thickened some.**
  7. Serve in large bowls.
Notes
* Self Rising Flour- If you don't have, you can make your own. For every 1 cup of ap flour add 1½ teaspoons Baking Powder and ¼ teaspoon Salt and mix well.

** If your sauce is not as thick as you would like, in a separate bowl, make a slurry consisting of 2 teaspoons Corn Starch and a 2 tablespoons of Stock. Mix well to remove any lumps and add this mixture back to your stock which should continue boiling for another minute or so. Keep stirring to combine. Lower the flame back to a simmer and the sauce will become thicker as it continues to cook.
3.2.1275

 

Chicken and Dumplings-2502

Enjoy and Stay Warm!

 

Filed Under: Eat, Poultry, Soup and Stews Tagged With: Chicken and Dumplings, Dumplings, NaBloPoMo, Recipe, Soup, Stew, Stock, chicken

Thanksgiving Preparation Begins- A Brining Conundrum

November 23, 2013 by Renee

Today we started the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. The grocery store was a little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so.  We don’t have so many guests this year but it doesn’t really affect the menu that much. I think I will leave off just two items I usually made- the Cranberry Apple Crumble and (shudder) the Apple Pie. I know, I know, I really should make the Apple Pie. But three pies just seems like a bit of overkill- there will of course be a Pecan and a Pumpkin. Those are traditional to me. We will see how I feel as the week gets on.

Anyway, Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. I am usually much better at planning and having my entire shopping list in place for one go. I just have been so busy and honestly, so tired lately that I completely waited until right before I went to make my full list- of which I still have a few items left to get this week.

I had grand plans of buying a farm fresh turkey but that didn’t happen. Then I thought I’d just pick up whatever the grocery store had on sale. But then when I got to the store I couldn’t bring myself to buy a bird that wasn’t at least organic. So I passed the $0.59 a pound ones in the freezer case opting instead for the $2.79 a pound organic Bell & Evans fresh turkeys in the refrigerator case.  I spent my time going through each one and chose a nicely proportioned 15 pounder. Not too small and not too large. Of the organic brands, this seemed to be the best  available. I haven’t had one of their turkeys before so I am curious how it will turn out. I do like their chickens so I am guessing it will be close to the same quality. I also love the fact that at 15 pounds, you are actually getting 15 pounds of bird and not an ounce of injected (mystery) liquid. I am perfectly capable of injecting it myself- and I will. Plus, I was thinking of brining it.

But here’s the conundrum- Do I use a dry brine or a wet one?  I really have no idea at this point- but better figure it out quick!

What do you do?  Any suggestions? Favorite recipes?

 

Filed Under: Kitchen Sink Tagged With: Brining, NaBloPoMo, Thanksgiving, Turkey

NaBloPoMo- Being Distracted by Ads from a Bygone Era

November 22, 2013 by Renee

It’s been a rather long week. Michael went back to England Tuesday evening and I’ve been quite busy since then- catching up on my reading, testing some recipes, kitchen equipment tests and a few other projects.

One project that I started again (Because, I have so much free time you know and need yet another distraction. Not at all!) was looking through my genealogy records and trying to find more documents. I discovered a fabulous online site that has millions of newspapers scanned in.  Part of the fun of these small town papers is how eerily similar they are to Facebook!

Have a look….(From the Homer Republican, Thursday, June 19, 1913)

  • Mr. and Mrs. Groton, visited Thomas Kane from Mrs. Kane’s grandmother, Mrs. Sweeney, last Sunday.
  • Miss Bertha Butler attended the Patrons of Industry picnic at Virgil, last week.
  • Raymond Craver of Syracuse, is home on account of illness.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Grant Kinney were in Groton last week to attend the funeral of Mrs. Kinney’s father, Albert Baker.
  • Donald Jones is spending some time with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. E.G. Roberts.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Hammond and Mr. and Mrs, Ray Hammond called at Arthur FltzPatrick’s, last Sunday.

Status updates!!!  And they go on and on. Every single person in town seems to have some sort of update for that day.  And they are repeated nearly everyday for anyone doing anything that may or may not be considered of interest!

But the things I love most are the stories about my distant relatives- their jobs, their families and their whereabouts at different times. I also love the ads in these papers. I am having so much fun just reading all the different ads.

So, tonight, instead of reading some of the books I am reviewing, I am reading ads and want to share them with you.

Cortland Standard50 cents a pint for Olive Oil! (for 1904 that does seem pricey though!)

And family recipes for homemade cures – intelligently compounded.  How amazing!

Homer Republican

I love those! Your home baking can be pleasant and profitable!  An apparatus for creating skim milk or for making only cream. How interesting!

I came across this for canning your own beans-

Green Beans

How 1950’s!

And I will leave you with this one-

Cheese Dip

Sounds imported. But it’s not!  While no longer made by the same company, and off the market for well over 25 years, it recently made a comeback. Here’s a Wikipedia article about the origins of the cheese.

Fascinating stuff!

Filed Under: Kitchen Sink Tagged With: Cheese, Green Beans, NaBloPoMo, ads, canning

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