My Own Chicken and Dumplings

When I was a kid, a member of my extended family used to make awesome pots of chicken and dumplings. No one in history has ever made chicken and dumplings as good as hers as far as I’m concerned! However, a few years ago, I began to want them so bad I could almost literally salivate from yearning. So, I googled every single recipe I could find, but much to my dismay, none of them were like hers. Not even close.

So, I tried to remember how she made them, though it was years since I’d watched her cook. Fortunately, I had picked up enough of her technique to guess my way through the plethora of recipes I’d found until I got it so close to her recipe that I don’t think it would have turned out that good if she’d taught me herself.

Stories like these are how all the great recipes are born! Without further ado, here is the recipe that I forged from memory and google!

Ingredients:

3-4 lbs of chicken (with a bone in there somewhere is the best way to go).
Salt and pepper to taste
Water (duh)
Self Rising flour, about 4 cups plus
1 cup or a dash more buttermilk
¼ cup of vegetable oil
3-4 tbsp. butter
1-2 cans of evaporated milk (depending on how much broth you have).


Directions:

Put your (bone in) chicken in a pot and cover with water. Add just a few dashes of salt for extra umph. Cover and boil on medium-high heat until your chicken is done and your broth is a nice color.


Remove chicken from water and set aside to cool for a few minutes.



Add evaporated milk to the water and a bit of pepper. Replace the lid to the pot and wait for it to boil slowly.

While you’re waiting on it to boil for a minute, get out your handy dandy mixing bowl and mix the following: flour (2 cups), butter, veggie oil, and buttermilk. Mix well. This is your dough for the southern style dumplings. Yummy!




Okay, so by now you have a good boil going on in your pot, right? Right…Now, you add some flour…do ¼ cup at a time until it’s mixed in just right. You want to mix well after each addition and don’t add more than a few cups. Stand there and mix well until you get a good thickness going on, as thick as you want it.

Now, the fun stuff! With your pot going on medium high heat, you want to go ahead and get your dumplings in there and let them cook too! With a fork, scoop out little dumpling sized bits of dough and dump them in the pot. When it’s all in there, then you can shred up your chicken and add it too if you want. Or you can shred half and leave half to eat on the side. Or just eat it all on the side. Really, it’s completely up to you, but I like mine in the mix with the dumplings and the soup!

Let it cook just a bit together before serving. Stir well. Should only take about ten or fifteen minutes for all the flavors to co-exist well together.



You can serve all this with cole slaw and green beans, rolls, mashed potatoes and just whatever your little heart desires. I don’t like a lot of side dishes with mine, just the chicken and dumplings. Enjoy! Happy cooking!