Hot Meal for a Cold Day!
Chicken and dumplings is my all-time favorite comfort food. I started making my own dumplings while still in high school with canned chicken broth and Bisquick drop dumplings. Through years of trial and error, I have improved my ingredients and my techniques. What I have given below is more of a method that I’ve learned from watching and listening to the great cooks in my life, than an actual recipe. Enjoy!
For the Broth and Chicken:
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 bunch of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
- 1-2 cloves Garlic
Put everything into a large stock pot, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let simmer for at least 2 hours, but longer is best. I cooked mine for about 4 hours. This can also be done in the crockpot, on low for up to 8 hours.
Once you have removed the cooked chicken and veggies from the pot, run the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a clean wider mouth pot. This allows for more surface area for the dumplings to spread out and cook.
Pick the chicken of all its meat and put away until after the dumplings are complete.
For The Dumplings:
- Approximately of 3 cups All Purpose Flour
- Approximately 1.5 cups reserved broth (cooled)
- Salt and Pepper
Mix flour and just enough chicken broth to bring the mixture together in a sticky ball. Dump the mixture onto a well-floured surface. Knead the dough just until it is no longer sticky. Sprinkle more flour into the mixture as you go.
Once the dough is not tacky, you can begin to roll it out with a well-floured rolling pin. Roll the dough out into a big thin sheet. Salt and pepper the dough now that it is rolled out.
Bring the broth to a low boil. Cut the dough into 1” x 2” dumplings (or slicks as they are also called around here). I use a pizza cutter to cut the pieces and I use a dough scraper to lift them off the counter. Add the dumplings one at a time into the boiling broth. DO NOT STIR. You may occasionally shake the pan to work the cooking dumplings around and open up more space to add new dumplings.
Once you have all dumplings in the pot, reduce to a simmer and cover for about 15 minutes. Uncover and low simmer for about 10 more. The broth should thicken while the pot is uncovered to the desired consistency.
Add the pulled chicken back to the pot and stir. Your homemade chicken and dumplings are now ready!
