Chicken N Dumpling’s: Recipe

I will tell you, the secret to my comfort soup is all in the stock!

Chicken N Dumpling’s is a well known comfort food. Recently I had a friend ask me to make it for her, like she does whenever she is sick and I had requests for the recipe, so here it is:

Ingredients:

One cheap whole chicken

3 Lg roughly chopped carrots

3 roughly chopped celery sticks

3 Lg roughly chopped onions

2 Leeks, washed well (can have sand in grn part), roughly chopped

4 smashed whole garlic cloves 

1 tsp Blk pepper

1 1/2Tbl Sage

1 Tbl Thyme

2 tsp Poultry Seasoning

3 Bay Leaves

48 oz. Can of Chicken Broth (if not salt-free, don’t add salt until the end of cooking to do it by taste)

More Ingredients for second phase of cooking:

3 lg Skinless Chicken Breasts

12 Skinless Chicken Thighs (w or w/o bone)

Two Lg carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, or I use the very center Heart of the celery that looks yellowish w it’s leaves and all, chopped

Two Lg onions, chopped

One Leek, washed well and chopped

Dumplings (see bottom of this post for recipe) 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Throw top eleven ingredients into a very large stock-pot on the stove-top. Pour water into pot just until the whole chicken is covered w liquid. Put lid on pot and bring to a boil; turn down to simmer and cook for 2-4 hours.

3. Meanwhile, salt and pepper chicken thighs and breasts. Put on a grill drip pan and roast on 450 degrees until done (about 40 min’s). 

4. While chicken cooks, prep your new vegetables by cutting into the size you desire in your soup.

5. Once chicken in the oven is done, take out to cool or use cooking gloves and cut up into bite size pieces, set aside.

6. Pour the drippings that were caught into an oil separator measuring cup (the fat goes to the top), the spout is at the bottom to only get the good drippings, leaving the fat on top to discard. Once the fat has separated, pour the good drippings into the stock pot w the stock-broth, discard the top fat. Or if you choose the freezer method bc you do not have a grease separator: pour the drippings and fat into a glass measuring cup and put it into the freezer, after the fat has separated and moved to the top, use a turkey baster to suck off the top liquid layer of fat and discard. Then add only the good drippings to the stock pot.

7. Take the stock-pot off the stove and ladle some of the stock into a colander over a very large bowl. You are separating the tasteless over-cooked chicken and vegetables from the very tasty stock. The chicken and vegetable flavors are now in the broth. Return stained broth to the stock pot and discard the over-cooked mixture.

8. Put the newly cut up vegetables into the stock-pot w the stock-broth, return lid to pan, and cook until the vegetables are almost done (don’t over-cook them and make them mushy).

9. Once you think the vegetables are about done, turn up the heat to get your broth boiling, then turn heat back to a simmer and add/drop your dumplings into the hot broth, it does not take long to cook the dumplings. Note* My dumplings are floured to keep my broth more like soup, however, if you want a thicker broth, add more flour by really heavily drenching your dumplings in floor at this stage. You can also lightly sprinkle it in careful to stir and not cause lumps.

10. Add the cut-up Chicken Breasts and Thighs to the stock pot and warm the meat up.

11.Taste, add salt according to your families taste. Note, remember if you used salt-free chicken broth. If you did not, there will be a lot of salt in the broth, so add sparingly and to taste. Serve.

Note: For Dumplings:

Use 2 cans of refrigerator biscuits (from the grocery for a short cut), tear them into thirds and flour them or the following recipe:

Dumplings:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons cold butter (You can use shortening instead)
1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, mixing well.

2. Cut in shortening using a pastry blender or a large fork (pastry makers mix in the shortening using their hands - if you want to try, dip your hands in ice cold water for a minute, then dry your hands first; it's important not to melt the butter.)

3. Add cold buttermilk, a few spoons at a time, mixing the dough from the outside in with fork until a soft dough forms (do not over mix - about 2 minutes total). You may need to add a small amount of buttermilk or flour to adjust the consistency of the dough due to flour storage conditions or humidity in the environment. Add liquid if the dough is very dry and crumbly after it has been mixed; add flour if the dough is very sticky.

4. Roll dough out on a work surface which has been lightly sprinkled w flour to prevent sticking. Roll dough out.

5. Cut into rounds like biscuits. Tear round into a third and dip into flour.