I grew up gobbling down my moms homemade chicken and dumplings.
homemade chicken stock with celery and onions salt pepper and then flour dumplings dropped in by spoonfuls or if mom had extra time and was feeling fancy she rolled it out and we had flat dumplings.
Moms dumplings are wonderful.
They have a solid bite to them. They aren't fluffy like the ones you get with bisquick or the ones that have milk and butter and such added to them... these are more pasta like and definitely satisfy if you love to have something in your soup that you can sink your teeth into.
So, we all grew up on homemade chicken and dumplings. A fresh clear broth, lots of celery and onions and chicken and never enough dumplings to satisfy. To this day I almost triple the dumpling recipe but don't change the soup recipe.
The pot practically explodes with the number of dumplings I add into it.
It's perfection.
I've never altered the recipe until this past monday night.
But, this girl had some vegetables in the fridge that were either going in the soup or going out the door so we added a few extra ingredients to Monday's soup...
It was amazing. The extra flavors I added along with the two boxes of really good chicken stock (it was monday, no reasonable woman has time to cook down a chicken and crack out and hearty soup on a monday) It turned out rich and satisfying and enough dumplings that I didn't feel I needed to make more to add when I reheated it.
I also jacked up the dumpling recipe a bit.
Traditionally the Chicken and Dumplings I grew up with had dumplings made with flour, egg, salt and pepper, and reserved chicken stock.
On Monday, probably because I'd seen a recipe for beef stew with herbed dumplings, I added in thyme and parsley to my mix.
So now that I've forced you to read about how delicious my meal was I'll share my
Carmel's Super Delicious Chicken & Dumplings
What you'll need:
1 Large yellow onion diced
3 ribs of celery dices
2 large carrots diced
2-3 cloves of garlic peeled and diced
1 leek cleaned and sliced thin up to it's light green parts...
2 boxes of good quality chicken stock
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and diced. Or a precooked rotisserie chicken from the deli with all the meat removed and chopped up.
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp of Thyme or more depending on your taste. With dried herbs a little goes a long way.
For the Dumplings:
2 cups of flour
1 egg
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
1/2 chicken stock
Thyme
Parsley
You can probably add whatever herbs suit your desires. You can go fresh or dried. I used what I had on hand without going complete nuts (I can go crazy when I'm recreating a recipe and instead of sitting down to something amazing we're calling out for an amazing pizza)
The dried parsley and thyme gave it a nice flavor.
I bet fresh rosemary and thyme would be delicious
In a dutch oven heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Saute the onions, carrots, and celery till they are soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes
toss in your garlic and leeks. give them a couple good turns with the spoon and cook about 4 minutes
pour in your chicken stock and bring it to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
Toss in your cooked chicken and let simmer while you mix up your dumpling mix.
Mix all ingredients for the dumplings till the dough is tacky
Bring soup up to a vigorous simmer (not quite boiling but definitely not still... you want to drop in the dumplings and allow them to roll a little bit)
Using two small spoons drop tablespoon sizes of the dough into the soup
Once you've got all the dumplings added give the soup a swirl with your spoon (the big one not a little one you'll hurt yourself) slap a lid on it and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Pour yourself a drink. You deserve it. Mixing up dumplings is hard work.
After fifteen minutes your dumplings should be well cooked and sitting on top of your soup.
If you're me, they've lifted the lid of the soup pot and you've run over there before the 15 minutes is up.
Put into a bowl and devour.
Repeat as desired.
Funny story.
When I was first with D. I made chicken and dumplings for Christmas Eve dinner with him and his family. I made a ton of it. I made a ton of dumplings. I gave everyone in his family a ton of dumplings.
They said that the soup was great but there were a lot of dumplings in it, three would have been plenty.
I told my mom the story about the three dumplings and she looked at me confused, like 'who can or would only eat three dumplings'
We felt ripped off as kids if we only got six in our bowl.
Well since I've made it again for him and his family I'm careful with how many dumplings they get.
It's a win win for me, I just get more dumplings to inhale.
homemade chicken stock with celery and onions salt pepper and then flour dumplings dropped in by spoonfuls or if mom had extra time and was feeling fancy she rolled it out and we had flat dumplings.
Moms dumplings are wonderful.
They have a solid bite to them. They aren't fluffy like the ones you get with bisquick or the ones that have milk and butter and such added to them... these are more pasta like and definitely satisfy if you love to have something in your soup that you can sink your teeth into.
So, we all grew up on homemade chicken and dumplings. A fresh clear broth, lots of celery and onions and chicken and never enough dumplings to satisfy. To this day I almost triple the dumpling recipe but don't change the soup recipe.
The pot practically explodes with the number of dumplings I add into it.
It's perfection.
I've never altered the recipe until this past monday night.
But, this girl had some vegetables in the fridge that were either going in the soup or going out the door so we added a few extra ingredients to Monday's soup...
It was amazing. The extra flavors I added along with the two boxes of really good chicken stock (it was monday, no reasonable woman has time to cook down a chicken and crack out and hearty soup on a monday) It turned out rich and satisfying and enough dumplings that I didn't feel I needed to make more to add when I reheated it.
I also jacked up the dumpling recipe a bit.
Traditionally the Chicken and Dumplings I grew up with had dumplings made with flour, egg, salt and pepper, and reserved chicken stock.
On Monday, probably because I'd seen a recipe for beef stew with herbed dumplings, I added in thyme and parsley to my mix.
So now that I've forced you to read about how delicious my meal was I'll share my
 |
| I apologize for this. I had to run back to the fridge to get a photo of it for you. It's really delicious. I promise. |
What you'll need:
1 Large yellow onion diced
3 ribs of celery dices
2 large carrots diced
2-3 cloves of garlic peeled and diced
1 leek cleaned and sliced thin up to it's light green parts...
2 boxes of good quality chicken stock
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and diced. Or a precooked rotisserie chicken from the deli with all the meat removed and chopped up.
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp of Thyme or more depending on your taste. With dried herbs a little goes a long way.
For the Dumplings:
2 cups of flour
1 egg
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
1/2 chicken stock
Thyme
Parsley
You can probably add whatever herbs suit your desires. You can go fresh or dried. I used what I had on hand without going complete nuts (I can go crazy when I'm recreating a recipe and instead of sitting down to something amazing we're calling out for an amazing pizza)
The dried parsley and thyme gave it a nice flavor.
I bet fresh rosemary and thyme would be delicious
In a dutch oven heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Saute the onions, carrots, and celery till they are soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes
toss in your garlic and leeks. give them a couple good turns with the spoon and cook about 4 minutes
pour in your chicken stock and bring it to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
Toss in your cooked chicken and let simmer while you mix up your dumpling mix.
Mix all ingredients for the dumplings till the dough is tacky
Bring soup up to a vigorous simmer (not quite boiling but definitely not still... you want to drop in the dumplings and allow them to roll a little bit)
Using two small spoons drop tablespoon sizes of the dough into the soup
Once you've got all the dumplings added give the soup a swirl with your spoon (the big one not a little one you'll hurt yourself) slap a lid on it and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Pour yourself a drink. You deserve it. Mixing up dumplings is hard work.
After fifteen minutes your dumplings should be well cooked and sitting on top of your soup.
If you're me, they've lifted the lid of the soup pot and you've run over there before the 15 minutes is up.
Put into a bowl and devour.
Repeat as desired.
Funny story.
When I was first with D. I made chicken and dumplings for Christmas Eve dinner with him and his family. I made a ton of it. I made a ton of dumplings. I gave everyone in his family a ton of dumplings.
They said that the soup was great but there were a lot of dumplings in it, three would have been plenty.
I told my mom the story about the three dumplings and she looked at me confused, like 'who can or would only eat three dumplings'
We felt ripped off as kids if we only got six in our bowl.
Well since I've made it again for him and his family I'm careful with how many dumplings they get.
It's a win win for me, I just get more dumplings to inhale.
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