Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken & dumplings - real stick to your ribs southern comfort food. If I were to say that our family is known for making a particular dish, this is probably the one it would be.

This is one of those dishes that people tend to try to over-complicate by adding unnecessary ingredients. I've also heard of folks using tortillas or canned biscuits in place of making their own dumplings and if you're going to do that you might as well buy canned chicken & dumplings because that's pretty close to what you'll wind up with anyway.

Our recipe has a short, inexpensive ingredient list so not only is this good ol' comfort food but you can feed a crowd on the cheap.

These are heavy dumplings so we don't use baking powder.

The best way to teach someone to make chicken & dumplings is to have them watch and help so they can get the feel for the dumplings, but experienced cooks should have no problem with this recipe. Inexperienced cooks should also give it a shot because it's inexpensive enough and unless you burn your dumplings, it'll still be edible. That wasn't the most encouraging way of putting that, was it? Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith. Or something like that.

Roll up your sleeves, kids. This one's messy, but worth it.

Kat's Chicken & Dumplings

1 - 4 lb. whole chicken

2 1/2 tsp. salt (plus extra if needed, to finish)

1 tsp. black pepper (plus extra to finish)

5 to 5 - 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (more, if needed)

1 large onion, chopped

2 to 3 chicken bouillion cubes, Better Than Bouillion paste, or homemade chicken stock

Remove the neck and gizzards from the chicken and wash the chicken thoroughly. Place the chicken along with the neck (if it was included - they aren't always) in a dutch oven and cover the chicken completely with water and add the salt and pepper. Don't add the gizzards. Either save them for something else or throw them out.

My 5 quart dutch oven is squatter and wider, so it's not possible for me to completely cover the chicken:

I just fill it as much as possible and turn the chicken over once in a while as it's cooking to get the whole thing done.

Bring your chicken to a boil and boil it over medium-high heat until it's beginning to fall off the bones; about an hour. Remove from heat, remove the chicken and neck from the broth, and leave all of the broth in the pot. Discard the neck. Cool chicken completely and debone. I like to leave mine in the largest chunks possible because it will fall apart a bit during the second cooking:

Place 4 and 1/2 cups of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add 2 cups of the cooled chicken broth and stir to wet all flour. Your dough should form a ball but be extremely tacky (much like myself). If it's too dry, add broth. If it's too wet, add a little flour.

Pour the remaining flour on a large, flat, clean surface where you can roll out and cut your dumplings. I worked straight on top of my counter and shame on me because that's a good way to cut up your counter tops. You should use a couple of sheets of wax paper.

Make sure your surface is very generously floured. Scrape the dumpling dough out onto the surface and knead in as much flour as it takes to give you a smooth firm dough, kneading no more than 25 times or so. Add more flour to your work surface if needed to keep the dumplings from sticking to it, and roll the dough out to 1/4" thickness. Use a sharp knife and cut the dumplings into approx. 2" x 2" squares.

Add enough water (or homemade stock) to your pot to bring the liquid level to just shy of 3/4ths of the way full and bring it to a rolling boil.

Once the broth is boiling add the dumplings one at the time, stirring gently after each few dumplings to keep them from sticking. This is easiest if you add them to the center of the pot.

After all of the dumplings have been added, add the onions, bringing the broth back up to a boil. Then add the chicken, bring back to a boil again, then lower heat to medium-low.

The richness of your broth depends on your chicken. Some just taste better than others. Taste the broth. If it's not 'chickeny' enough add bouillion cubes one at a time, tasting after each addition. Add a generous sprinkle of black pepper. Additional salt usually isn't needed if you've used bouillion or Better Than Bouillion. I used a generous spoonfull of Better Than Bouillion in mine.

If you had homemade stock you probably won't need the bouillion boost but you may need a little salt.

At first your chicken broth will look clear, but as it cooks it will thicken and turn opaque.

Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat until the onions are completely tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Stir gently all the way to the bottom of the pot occasionally to make sure dumplings aren't sticking.

We serve ours in bowls with cornbread alongside.