Friday, January 8, 2010

Chicken and Dumplings

Due to an inside joke I cannot quite convey, I have be intrigued with Chicken and Dumplings. Let it be know I am a English girl by heritage and thusly, never before experienced this truly southern American meal. Chicken and dumplings reminds me of Paula Deen in all it's delicious richness. Ms. Deen is not shy when it comes high calorie meals, to put it gently, so I was expecting a very fattie dish. No so! Another myth dispelled :YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE CANNED CREAM SOUP. I heard it was true by a rather indelicate poster, but I have confirmed its veracity! You heard it here first.

If the soup does not meet the desired thickness and slurry of cornstarch and water can be added at the end, while boiling, to thicken it further.

Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients:

for chicken soup
1 whole chicken, cut up
3 ribs of celery
2 carrots
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 chicken bullion cube
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)
fresh ground pepper (ideally white pepper)
6 cups water
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

for dumplings
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup ice water
1 chicken bullion cube

Preparing chicken and stock
1) Rinse and dry chicken pieces. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
2) Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a large pot. Place chicken skin-side down in hot oil (if won’t all fit on the bottom, but put as much in contact with the oil as possible).
3) Brown chicken 5 minutes.
4) Add water, carrots, celery and 1 bullion cube to pot (roughly break the celery and carrots, or chop, to fit). Bring to a boil.
5) Simmer 30 minutes on low heat.
6) Remove chicken from stock. Reserve chicken to cool.
7) Drain stock to a separate bowl (strain to remove carrots, celery, etc). Discard vegetables.
8) When stock has settled, spoon off all but 2 Tablespoons rendered chicken fat and discard (reserve the 2 T. chicken fat). Wipe pot clean
9) While stock is settling, prepare dumplings (see below).
10)Return 2 T. rendered chicken fat to the pot. Add onions and sauté 5 minutes until translucent.
11) Add 3 Tablespoons AP Flour to the pot and whisk vigorously to incorporate. Allow to brown slightly, then add stock to the pot. Bring to a boil.
12) Remove chicken from bones and roughly chop into 1 to 2 inch cubes.
13) Add cooked chicken to pot. Correct seasoning. Reduce heat to a simmer.
14) Add dumplings to pot and simmer for 10 minutes, or until cooked through.

Preparing dumplings
1) Place flour and bullion cube in a bowl. Break up bullion and mix to incorporate.
2) Cut butter into flour mix until mixture resembles course crumb.
3) Add water and mix with a wooden spoon. If needed, add additional water by droplets. Dough should just hold together.
4) Roll dough into a long rope, 1 inch in diameter. Cut into 1 inch segments.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

how do you find time to deal with the kids and to cook huge meals like this? seriously? A whole freaking chicken??? it takes hours to unthaw, then you have to debone it, and cook it... this is an all day recipe. and chicken and dumplings is not a soup- it is suppossed to be really thick. I have never had veggies in my chkn and dumplings before, it is not a one dish meal, it is a side.

RoxieWithMoxie said...

I rarely use frozen meat. I make a meal plan 3 days out and buy the meat fresh. You can buy whole cut up chickens, which saves time.

In terms of having time, my daughter is in school during the day and my son loves to cook with me and is more willing to entertain himself or bring playthings into the kitchen than if I was busy doing something else. Not sure why that is.

With regards to main meal vs. side dish, I can't really speak to that. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess. We served it with a side of broccoli, but it didn't seem necessary. I'm not a southerner, though, so what do I know?

I appreciate your post! Thanks!

Moloko Vellocet said...

It can be a main dish. There's no rule about that! Hey anonymous, if cassoulet can be a main dish in France, then chicken and dumplings can be.

Just a minor correction on "bullion": bouillon. "Bouillir" from French 'to boil' (bullion is heavy metals). ;)

RoxieWithMoxie said...

I question the spell check on this. I think it's anti-french! It prefers saute over sauté. I think the programmers have had a few too many freedom fries.

pleiades said...

This look insanely delicious. I'm adding it to my weekly meal plan for next week so I will post after I make it.

Oh, Cassoulet sounds delicious too, YUMMM. I made it twice when the girls were babies and I have to do it again.

I agree w/ finding time to cook. First, I also buy fresh chicken & for this dish I might buy a pre-cut bird since my skills w/ cutting up a bird are not so great.

My girls also give me so much freedom when I'm busy cooking but if I try to take some down time to read, suddenly they're all over me. Not sure why.

MatthewsMama said...

It is so funny that this has come up here lately.Chicken and dumplings is actually one of my favorite meals. My Mamaw is from the south, and she makes them for me when I am home to visit. I just had some while I was home to visit over New Years! I asked her to show me how she makes them and she did. She is a cook that doesn't measure, so it is hard for me to give measurements, but here is how she does it.

Make chicken broth however you prefer, saving the white meat to chop up into the dumplings.

For the dumplings, she uses all purpose flour, adds baking powder (gives them a nice fluffiness) then cuts in vegetable shortening with a hand help pastry blender. You want it to be come pea sized, like if you were making pie crust. Then you add cold milk a little at a time until all the flour is wet, and the dough is sticky. Then you put a good amount of flour on your board, drop some of the dough onto it, work a bit of flour in just until it isn't too sticky to roll out, cut into squares with pizza cutter, and drop into boiling stock. The boiling is important so they don't stick. Repeat until all dough is used. The extra flour stuck to the dumplings will thicken the stock as they cook. Then add chopped or shreded white meat and serve. Delicious, but not exactly your healthiest meal! re some very approximate measurements:

2-3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c shortening
1/4-1/2 c milk

As for whether this is a main dish or side dish, it really depends on your preference and the meal. We usually serve it with mixed roasted veggies, a salad, and sometimes lots of other things too as part of a big meal when the whole family gets together.

megviolet said...

I do chicken and dumpling like chicken stew with dumplings... a lot like pot pie filling... so tons of veggies in mine, celery, carrot, potatoes and peas, and my kiddo eats them!
How can putting veggies in something ever be wrong anyway?

Serenity said...

this looks like on of the best chicken and dumplings recipes yet I have seen...I am going to have to try this one.

And this next part is just for your anon... the last few recipes I tried did have veggies in it and the anon must not know how to correctly use their time...i got a house full of kids and this is by far one of the easiest recipes I will have prepared for my family...lol.

Thanks for sharing...can't wait to try it.

RoxieWithMoxie said...

I'm beginning to think that Chicken and Dumplings is one of those dishes that everyone has a variation on. It's like Sheppards pie or Chicken Soup. There is no one right way, and most are really good! I'll have the try this variation too. I'm still a novice Chicken and Dumpling cook and would love to learn more about it.