Chicken and Dumplings
Churrasco steak is the number one meal my kids ask for when they are home from school; Chicken and Dumplings is the second meal. These are the real deal; not from a can or using biscuit dough out of a can. These are the get yourself floured up, honest to goodness from scratch dumplings. For a while, only Grandma (my mother) was allowed to make Chicken-n-dumps (as the kids call it) because mine did not quite taste like grandma’s. Well, come to find out, her handed-down, written recipe was missing three key ingredients. This is why I always say, “there really is no such thing as ‘authentic’ anything.” Somewhere down the line, something is missed or changed by some generation and the “authenticity” is gone. That’s not a bad thing; tastes change, ingredients aren’t always available, or any number of other reasons. In this case, however, it was the difference between the kids liking the dish and the kids loving the dish.
This is also the reason I decided to put the videos together for my kids for my recipes. Had I not watched my mother making the chicken stock, I would have never known about adding celery, carrots, and onions to the stock while cooking the chicken. It was not in the recipe but was something she just always did.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken quartered with skin on
- 4 tsp salt divided
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 carrot peeled and cut into 3 pieces
- 1 celery rib cut into 3 pieces
- 1 medium onion peeled and quartered
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ cup shortening
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1¼ cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Place chicken pieces in a very large stock pot, cover the chicken with water and place on the stove at high heat
- Add carrot pieces, onion, and celery, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper to the pot
- While the chicken is cooking, add the flour, remaining 2 teaspoons of salt, and baking powder to a large mixing bowl
- Cut in shortening with a fork or pastry cutter
- Work the shortening in until there are no more clumps in the flour mixture
- Add about ¼ cup of chicken stock to the beaten eggs (I typically use store bought chicken broth for this step so I do not have to wait for the broth to cool down; it's an efficiency thing)
- Add the eggs to the flour mixture and mix
- Add the rest of the chicken broth to the flour mixture a little bit at a time until the dough becomes a little on the sticky side
- On a large, clean surface, spread about 1-2 cups of flour in about a 2x4 foot area
- Place ½ of the dough on the floured surface
- Sprinkle a little flour on the top of the dough and press on it with your hands to flatten it a bit
- Use a rolling pin (make sure it is well-floured), roll the dough out into a rectangle'ish
- Fold half of the dough back on the other side of the dough and sprinkle the surface with more flour, repeat on the other side
- Continue rolling the dough out until it is super thin (1/8 inch)
- At this point, we need to check the chicken; when the chicken reaches 165℉, carefully remove it from the pot and place on a platter to cool
- Remove the carrots, onions, and celery from the chicken stock
- Keep the stock at a steady boil
- Back to the dumplings; once the dumpling dough is as thin as you can get it, use a pizza wheel to cut 1 x 2-inch dumplings
- Add the dumplings, one at a time, into the boiling chicken broth, stirring every once in a while, to keep the dumplings from sticking to the bottom and each other
- Add more flour to the working surface and repeat the dumpling process with the remaining half of the dough
- Once all of the dumplings are in the pot, reduce the heat so the dumplings are simmering, cover, and stir occasionally
- While the dumplings are cooking, remove the chicken from the bone into bite-sized pieces, set the chicken meat aside and discard the bones
- Once the dumplings are no longer doughy, taste to determine if any salt or pepper needs to be added
- Add the chicken to the dumplings and stir
- Serve over potatoes (boiled or mashed) and sweet peas