all amounts are approximate
Bake chicken
2 ½ to 3 lb chicken
2 C water
bit of oil or butter
1 large onion, diced
½ lb carrots, bite-sized pieces
3 or 4 stalks celery, bite-sized pieces
450 degrees
Place chicken and water in baking pan. Immediately reduce heat to 325.
Bake chicken, 20 minutes per pound. Remove from oven; cool slightly. Save broth.
De-bone chicken; cut into bite-sized pieces.
In meantime, in heavy pot, weep onions and celery in oil (I use oil and butter mixture). When soft, add chicken and broth from baking pan plus 4 or more cups of water—enough to fill the pot while leaving room for the dumplings. Try to scrape up the gravy-fixins that are left in the pan, but not the skin. Add some herbs: think Simon & Garfunkel and use parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme. Do not add salt and pepper until you're ready to serve. Soup can simmer at this level for as long as you need. Stir in carrots. Bring to gentle boil for 10 minutes or until carrots are almost done. Simmer.
In meantime, mix dumplings:
2 C flour (I use mixture of whole wheat and unbleached)
1 tablespoon baking powder
dash salt
1 egg (optional
Mix together until crumbly like pie crust; add in cold milk, a little at a time, until sticky dough forms. Don't over mix. Dough should be very sticky, like school paste.
20 minutes before you're ready to serve:
Make sure soup is simmering, not boiling (but you do want the liquid to be moving some). Drop dumplings by the spoonful on top of the soup (you decide how large the dumplings should be; I usually make them about half the size of my fist). Fill the top layer of the pan, but you don't want any dumplings to sink. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 10 more or so.
Note: This is my northern version. For a southern version, I'd do all of the above EXCEPT instead of the drop dumplings I'd make a ton of egg noodles, cut them about 1 ¼ inch wide, and add them. Northern version turns out like stew, southern like chicken & gravy with noodles. You decide! Enjoy!
Originally Submitted
4/5/2008
0 Out of 5 from
0 reviews
You can add this Chicken & Dumplings recipe to your own private DesktopCookbook.