Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
Filed under Chicken, Comfort Food, Main Course, Seasonal Favorites: Winter, Soup and Stew
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Chicken and dumplings - the ultimate comfort food. Mom used to make this for us kids by simply adding Bisquick biscuit dough to chicken stew. We would always fight over the dumplings. Making chicken and dumplings so that the dumplings are tasty, light, yet hold together isn't an easy task. The Bisquick dumplings, although light and fluffy, tend to fall apart. On the other extreme, my dad remembers his mother's dumplings that in his words were "as hard as hockey pucks". Leftover dumplings would be grated the following morning and fried up like potatoes. For this version, I researched recipes until I found one that I thought would give the best result.
The following chicken and dumplings recipe is adapted from the book, The Best Recipe, a collection of recipes from the test kitchen of Cooks Illustrated Magazine. This recipe requires a lot of pots and pans, but the results are terrific. A few things distinguish this method from others. First, you use a whole chicken, and create the chicken stock by "sweating" hacked up pieces of back, neck, and wings. (This method had been detailed in How to Make Chicken Stock.) Second, you cook the vegetables separately, so they don't get all mushy. Third, when you make the dumplings, you add hot liquid butter and milk into the dry ingredients, instead of cutting cold butter into to the flour. My main observation about the dumplings is that you shouldn't overknead them. I think I overdid it a bit with my dumplings and they weren't as fluffy as I would have liked. They were however, delicious, and especially tasty with the fresh herbs.
Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
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Ingredients
Poached Chicken and Vegetables:
1 large roasting chicken (6 to 7 lbs), cut into 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breast pieces, each with skin removed; back, neck, and wings hacked with a cleaver into 1 to 2 inch pieces to make stock.
1 large onion, cut into large chunks
2 bay leaves
Salt
3 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into 1 x 1/2-inch pieces
4 medium carrost, peeled and cut into 1 x 1/2-inch pieces
6 boiling onions, peeled and halved
4 Tbsp unsalted buter, softened, or chicken fat from the cooked chicken
6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 Tbsp dry sherry or vermouth
1 Tbsp of heavy cream (optional)
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
Ground black or white pepper
Dumplings:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup minced fresh herb leaves such as parsley, chives, and tarragon (optional)
Method
1 Making the stock.
Heat deep 11 or 12-inch skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add hacked up chicken pieces - the back, neck, and wings - and onion chunks (not the boiling onions). Sauté until onion softens and chicken loses its raw color, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and continue to cook until chicken pieces give up most of their liquid, about 20 minutes. (While chicken stock pieces are cooking, bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a kettle.) Increase heat to to medium-high, add 6 cups of hot water.
2 Cooking the chicken.
Add skinned chicken parts (legs, thighs, breasts), bay leaves, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt, then bring to a simmer. Reduce heat; continue to simmer, partially covered, until broth is flavorful and chicken parts are just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken parts and set aside. When cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones in 2 to 3 inch chunks. Strain broth, discarding chicken pieces. Skim and reserve fat from broth and set aside 4 cups of broth, reserving extra for another use.
3 Cooking the vegetables.
While the chicken is cooking, bring 1/2 inch water to simmer in a skillet fitted with a steamer basket. Add celery, carrots, and boiling onions; cover and steam until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside.
4 Forming the dumplings.
While chicken is cooking, mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add (optional) chopped fresh herbs. Heat butter and milk to simmer and add to dry ingredients. Mix with a fork or knead by hand two to three times until mixture just comes together. (Note: do not overknead! or your dumplings will turn out too dense.) Form dough into balls or lighlty roll-out and use the end of a 2-inch diameter water glass as a mold to cut the dough into even circles. Set aside
5 Making the gravy.
Heat butter or reserved chicken fat in the cleaned large skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour and thyme; cook, whisking constantly, until flour turns golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisking constantly, gradually add sherry or vermouth, then reserved 4 cups of chicken stock; simmer until gravy thickens slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in optional cream and chicken and steamed vegetables; return to simmer.
6 Adding the dumplings.
Lay formed dumplings on the surface of the chicken mixture; cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Gently stir in peas and parsley. Adjust seasonings, including adding generous amounts of salt and pepper. Ladle portions of meat, sauce, vegetables, and dumplings into soup plates and serve immediately.
Serves 6 to 8.
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Posted by Elise on Aug 21, 2004 and indexed Chicken, Chicken Stew, Dumplings, Stew



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What a great colder-weather recipe! I'm in the process of gathering some really good recipes to make this fall (as I like to do before the season officially hits), and this one will definitely be going on the list...delicious, Elise!