Chicken and Dumplin's

Seems my blogging lately has been related to our food days at work.  This month's theme is our mother's best recipe. Unfortunately, the two recipes that I think are mom's best aren't suitable for the bus trip into the office.

I did my recipe prep over a couple of evenings.  First I cooked the chicken, cooled it and refrigerated the broth overnight.  I got a big ol' slab of fat from the top resulting from the night in the fridge.  I picked the chicken and then put everything together the night before taking it to work.

Of course, I had to do a sampling to make sure it as fit to take to work <grin>.  As luck would have it,  my eating a bowl reduced the quantity just enough for the remaining chicken and dumplings to fit into the Tupperware bowl for transporting.   I was thrilled to have kept myself from having seconds! 

I can't wait for our potluck tomorrow and having another serving of this comforting dish!

Chicken and Dumplin's

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
4 carrots, diced
4 ribs of celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
10 cups water

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/3 cup lard (or Crisco)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. thyme

Directions:

Unwrap the chicken, remove the neck and giblets, rinse the chicken and cavity with cold water.
In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the diced vegetables and saute them for 10 minutes.

Add the chicken to the pot, sitting it on the vegetables and add the water.  Add salt, pepper and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking for 90 minutes.

Remove from the heat, remove the chicken, putting it in a colander over a bowl to drain.
Cool broth to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight or use a separator if in a hurry.

Remove the skin from the chicken and separate the meat from the bones.  Shred the meat and set aside.

To make the dumplings:

Mix the flour, salt, pepper, baking powder and poultry seasoning together in a medium bowl.
Add the lard and cut it in with a pastry blender until the size of small peas.
In a measuring cup, mix the chicken broth and heavy cream.
Pour about 2/3 cup of the broth/cream mixture into the flour mixture and stir until mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Divide the dough in half and roll it out to 1/8th inch thickness on a heavily floured board.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 2" squares.

Add the thyme to the broth.  Bring the broth to a rolling boil.  Add the squares from the first half of the dough, one at a time  Lower heat to a slow boil.  

Cover pan and cook for 10 minutes.  Roll out remaining dough and cut dumplings.  After 10 minutes, add the additional dumplings and any remaining cream/broth liquid to the pot, stirring very carefully. Continue cooking uncovered another 8 minutes or until dumplings are tender.

Carefully stir in the shredded chicken and stir.  Continue cooking until chicken is heated through. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Serve it up in a pretty bowl, dig in and enjoy!

As a follow on, this got a unanimous thumbs up from the folks at work.  I brought home absolutely no leftovers!

......and that's What's Cooking at Cathy's ~ Enjoy!