Hi everyone, I know, long time no post. So the latest in my recipe collection is Chicken and Dumplings. Now as with most of the stuff I have been making, I have never had Chicken and Dumplings before. I know, strange with as many times as I have been to Cracker Barrel. So I used Paula Dean's recipe I found on www.foodnetwork.com and added some tarragon to my dumplings because I had read about that on a different recipe.
Now I got all of my ingredients out and got started. The first thing I got to do was quarter my chicken to make the stock. Now I don't know why the call it "quartering" it because you cut it into 8 pieces not 4 but what ever. I did ok on it, I do need some practice. The hardest part was getting the back bone out. I was able to separate my legs into the thigh and drumstick with minimal hacking. I was very proud of the fact that I could locate my tenderloin parts under the breast. As we would say in the Navy, learning is occurring.
Now the recipe said to let it simmer for 40 min but I think I let it stay in a little longer than that. No more than an hour though. The chicken comes out and cools enough to touch it to take the skin and bones off then back in the stock it went. Now at this point I was seriously starting to think I had too much stock in my pot. It seemed really thin and I was expecting it to get thicker with the cream of chicken soup that was added to it. But I went with it, like I said, I had never had it before so what did I know. So I let it simmer longer to try to reduce it down.
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| My Stock |
Now those of you that know me know that I am on Facebook...a lot, so when I thought it was still too thin I turned to my Facebook peeps that had had it before and asked questions...(thanks Jessica if you are reading this). I hadn't put my dumplings in yet and was assured that it would thicken some with them in there. It did. Still not as much as I had hoped but I think it is because I didn't let the dumplings simmer long enough. The recipe said for about 4 minutes but a guy from my class says he does it for 12 covered and then another 12 uncovered. Too bad I didn't get that post until after I had served it. I did have it for lunch today and it was great. I have to say I really liked the stock made from simmering the whole quartered chicken. It was packed with flavor.
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| Rolled dumplings |
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| cut in about 2 inch pieces |
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| dumplings with tarragon |
If you have a recipe for Chicken and Dumplings that you love please send it my way. I would like to try them again, and please don't forget to add how long to cook the dumplings!
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| Chicken and Dumplings with a side of toasted wheat bread |
Thought I'd share something from my Southern Living book, "1001 Ways to Cook Southern."
ReplyDeleteSo Many Ways to Make Dumplings (pg 678)
Slick, fluffy, sad and happy. Who knew there were so many ways to describe the cooked dough in chicken and dumplings?
"I was shocked," said East TN Cathy Riddle. "I had cooked up a pot of chicken and dumplings, and one of my coworkers came in and said, 'oh, you make sad dumplings.' Then she told me that slick, chewy dumplings are 'sad' and the fluffy ones are 'happy.'"
The slick ones are biscuit or pastry dough rolled out in thin strips. For the doughy, fluffy kind, biscuit dough is dropped into the broth like drop biscuits. But cooks in a hurry have been known to make dumplings from frozen or canned biscuits, tortilla strips or the handy dandy dumpling strips found in the frozen food section.
The recipe in the book goes on to use a can of refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits. Guess they like happy (cheater) dumplings!