As the weather turns cooler, a childhood staple makes it's way back into my kitchen. Growing up, making chicken and dumplings, was a simple affair. My mom would just throw a chicken into a pot, cook it until it fell apart, remove the bones and skin, add pinched off biscuits, and voila!
This was good enough for me, until I met Bryan. To him, chicken and dumplings represented a holiday ritual. His grandmother's chicken and dumplings graced the table at family gatherings and were a thing of legend.
So for the last eleven years, I have been on a quest to replicate her chicken and dumplings. I was never fortunate enough to eat hers, but after loads of recipes, I have finally achieved my own that I am happy with. It also helps that Bryan claims it is very much like hers. ;)
Chicken and Dumplings is a dish that is very easy to mix and change around to make it your own. The key is the dumplings. I was raised on the canned biscuit method. It is fast and easy. You can add any vegetables, in fact, in the near future I want to attempt vegetarian and maybe vegan versions.
We'll see.
If you want to make your own broth, just take one chicken, add onion, carrots, salt, pepper, celery, your choice of herbs ( I had fresh rosemary and basil at hand, so that is what I used), and garlic. Cover all this with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to low, and cover. When the chicken was done, I took it out, deboned and skinned it, putting the bones back into the pot to simmer a while longer. Then, I poured it through a mesh strainer and let it set in large bowls to cool. After this, I skimmed off the fat and poured into jars. This was my first time to make my own broth, but so far it has turned out okay.
So here is my version of chicken and dumplings with pictures.
Ingredients:
2 - 4 cups chicken broth
2 - 4 cups water
**You will need about 6 cups of liquid altogether, you could use all water, or all broth, just make sure you have enough liquid to cook everything**
1 cup cooked, chopped chicken
3 large carrots peeled and chopped
2 cans of biscuits
3 fresh leaves of basil
Salt and Pepper to taste
¼ cup of flour (optional for the gravy)
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Preparation:
1.) In a medium size sauce pan, combine the broth, water, carrots, and chicken.
2.) Snip or tear the basil and add it to the pan.
3.) Bring all of this to a boil.
4.) While you are waiting on the liquid to come to a boil, go ahead and get the biscuits ready. You can pinch them apart, but I prefer to cut them into quarters.
5.) Once the liquid starts to boil, reduce the heat a little, and add the dumplings. To avoid overcooking, it is best to cook them in two separate groups. The tricky part is getting the dumplings cooked, but not overcooked. As soon as it looks like they are done, take one out and cut it in half. When they are done, transfer them to a bowl. I have a casserole dish that I like to use. To keep them warm, I put them in a warm oven, but you don’t have to do this, just keep them covered. Cook the second batch and transfer everything to the casserole, bowl, or platter, and cover.
6.) You can stop at this and devour them, or take it one step further and make a gravy. To make the gravy, pour out at least half of the broth, add the flour a little at a time (if you have a sifter on hand, shaking the flour through this helps a lot.) Whisk the flour using either a whisk or fork. Continue doing this over low heat, until you reach the desired consistency.
7.) Pour the gravy over your chicken and dumplings and serve!
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One of my favorite books ever, is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. When I heard that they were making a movie based on the book, I was worried. Very few times, is a movie able to live up to a book. From what I have seen of the trailers though, it looks to me like it is going to be really good. We are all excited about seeing it. Feather wants me to make her a costume like Max's. I think she is still going to be a lion for Halloween, so there's two costumes, but I am inspired, so we will see how they work out. I did get a rough sketch done of the design for her loin costume. I always think that these are irrelevant until later on when I come across them. This will be the third year that I have made her costume. I have to admit that this is something that I really enjoy. I do finally have some ideas for clothes. Hopefully I can be patient enough to see them through! It is so frustrating not having a sewing machine. When I get an idea, I want to put it together, and get frustrated by the time it takes to stitch it all by hand. The curtains I made did not take near as long as I thought, and they turned out okay, so I am going to try and just get to it. The weather out is really nice. I was out in the backyard checking on the veggies, and it was wonderful. All soggy and gray with a nip of cold mixed in. Hearing the water seeping into the ground - I love it. Then later Feather and I took the boys for their walk. It was misting and getting dark. Again lovely.
