Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe comes from my mother and I tweak it as necessary. Darrell's mom makes excellent dumplings as well, typically as a side dish accompanying a larger meal. The dumplings (or dumplins, if you prefer) are of the flat variety (sometimes called "slicks"). I have made two different recipes for the slicks, both of which are good. I encourage you to experiment as needed.

For the soup, you will need:

1 5 to 6 lb. whole chicken
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 quarts fresh cold water, approximately
2 cans Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup
2 knorr chicken bouillon cubes

Dumpling recipe 1 (my moms)

3 cups flour
4 1/2 tbsp shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1 to 1 1/8 cup water (more as needed)

Clean chicken inside and out under cold water and place in large pot with about 2 quarts of water. Place on medium to medium low heat and cook until chicken is done. Remove chicken from water and let cool. When cooled, pick meat of bones discarding the skin and fat. Set meat aside, under plastic wrap if necessary.

Skim the chicken stock for any fat and foam and if needed, pour off most of the stock into a clean pot leaving any settled material at the bottom of the first pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and a little extra water if needed to the new pot and bring to a boil stirring well. After boiling, reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil and add dumplings (see below)

For the dumplings, mix flour and salt. cut in shortening (food processor is great for this) stir in water to form a soft dough. let dough rest for 20-30 minutes. on a floured counter, roll out (using a pin or sturdy glass or cup) very thinly. cut into strips about 1" x 3" (it doesn't have to be exact) and drop into simmering soup. stir as needed, cook for 10 minutes with the lid off, and 10 more with the lid on.

Dumpling Recipe 2

3 or so cups of self rising flour
pinch salt
water, enough to form soft dough.

let rest for 20-30 minutes, roll out and cut the same as above. these dumplings will be more firm than the ones with shortening, but equally delicious. This is how Darrell's mom makes them.

Last night's batch I made with a hybrid of my mom's and darrell's mom's recipe. I used self rising flour in my moms recipe. AS far as which I like better, its hard to say. They are both so damned good.

Now, for some commentary.

Ingredients:

• You don't have to use a whole chicken, you can use a couple of thighs and breasts or whatever you have on hand. Cooking your own chicken is important to me, but you could probably get by with a rotisserie chicken if you really wanted to. The difference would be your soup would lack some of the body that you get from making it your self.
• Knorr Bouillon cubes are simply the best there is. Don't skimp on these.
• The cream of chicken soup is optional
• The amount of water recommended will typically produce a pretty thick soup. last nigh i worked with probably 4 quarts of water initially and made it a bit thinner. you can play with this.

Method:

I have stated that this recipe is pretty easy, but I can see how it could be intimidating if you have never done it. here are some tips:

• start with clean counters and a clean kitchen
• prep your dumplings when the chicken is almost done or cooling.
• add your chicken to the soup before you add dumplings
• to aid chicken in cooling, carefully remove skin and make some slices along the breast bone and the joints to help the bird "spread out"
• use a sharp knife or dough blade to cut dumplings.

by all means, if you have a question, don't hesitate to ask me.