Quick Chicken (or Leftover Turkey?) and Dumplings

Missy Tippens

I'm re-sharing a blog post from December 27, 2013! I wanted to make the easy version of chicken and dumplings again, so this will make the "recipe" easier for me to find. :) Enjoy!!

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Missy, here. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas! I recently came up with a very quick version of chicken and dumplings and thought this would be a good time to share it in case you'd like to just use leftover turkey instead of chicken.

Quick and Easy Chicken And Dumplings

Missy Tippens

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts or a whole chicken (If you want to make this asap, pick the meat off a rotisserie chicken and use a box of chicken broth plus several cups of water).
1/2 bag Frozen biscuits

Yes, that's it for ingredients! 

First, these are the BEST frozen biscuits! I love the tea size, which is what I used in this recipe.

I used frozen biscuits because I cooks several chicken breasts and then realized I didn't have any Bisquick or frozen dumplings! So I thought I'd give it a try using frozen biscuit dough.

Cook your chicken in a big pot of water (enough that you can cook the dumplings once chicken is done). Don't boil it or it'll become tough. Keep it simmering on medium-low until done (about a half an hour).

While chicken is cooking, place half a bag (about 12 small) biscuits on a cutting board to thaw slightly (enough that you can cut them). I cut the tea biscuits in quarters.

Remove the chicken to a plate to cool. Then shred or chop
.

Keep broth simmering and add the pieces of biscuits a couple at a time. At first, they'll sink.

Then when they start to cook, they'll start floating to the top. DO NOT STIR! Resist the urge to stir or they'll tear to pieces and you'll have a cloudy pot of goo. If you must make sure none are sticking to the bottom (like I had to do), then gently stick in a spoon and give it a brief, gentle stir.

Cover and let simmer about 10 minutes. Longer if you're using bigger biscuits.

Before serving, add the shredded chicken in to reheat (again, gently so you don't destroy your dumplings). Spoon into bowls and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. This turned out surprisingly well! I don't think that I'll make dumplings from scratch or from a baking mix again.

YUM!

Great Pasta Shop!

Okay, I live in small town... And it faces the challenges of many small towns, small businesses coming and going, but this business is here to stay, I hope!

My friend Lisa told me about Bozza Pasta.

CHECK OUT THEIR FAMILY WEBSITE HERE!

OH MY STARS.

Hand-shaped pasta, amazing flavors, wonderful texture, all kinds of flavors and blends and textures... I have found my pasta mother ship!

I am so happy right now!  This is the five cheese roasted red pepper tortelloni... It was beyond amazing.

And we did a veggie medley to go along with:

Then this was the black pepper and garlic fettuccine so we did a fresh veggie medley to go with it: With a little roasted garlic herb seasoning, of course, because everything (except pie) is better with roasted garlic herb! 

The Bozza family's pasta is now being carried in some wonderful restaurants and in some Wegman's Grocery Store (the benchmark grocery store that began right here in Rochester a long, long time ago! If you live near a Wegman's supermarket, you know what I mean!)

Then I made toasted garlic and butter bagel bites to go with this amazing cheesy dip we found at Bozza's!

And a light marinara sauce to top it off... Doesn't this look amazing? The pretty plate doesn't hurt, either!

This is my first time playing with hand-crafted pastas, but it won't be the last. There's an amazing ravioli that I can't wait to try... and more of those linguines and fettuccines!

I am in pasta love!

Multi-published, USA Today Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves that she's writing the kind of stories she loves to read while juggling the pumpkin farm in Western New York.... which is always a great time! You can find her here on Thursdays, hanging with some folks she loves (Waving to Jan, Mindy, Cate and Missy!!!) or over on Seekerville, on facebook where she loves to talk with readers and writers with a splash of family thrown in.... or visit her website ruthloganherne.com. Her latest books and her older ones, too, are all available on Amazon.com and you can check out her author page to find out what you've missed... Ruthy's Author Page

A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

When my husband was alive, this was usually our week in Maine.

Instead, I've been back in school and had an emergency trip to the vet.

So, I didn't get to make the dish I'd planned to share this week, I decided to indulge in a little trip down memory lane.

For me, the best part of this vacation was the long walks with Fenway on the beach every night. For most of the summer, dogs are barred from the beach, but every night from 6 - 8 they are allowed on leash. My silly dog who hates HATES getting his feet wet, and balks at walking in the rain, LOVES the beach. All he has to hear is me say, "Fenny, want to go to the beach?" and his tail starts wagging and his face breaks into a grin. From the moment we exit the car, he is yanking me toward the water. It's funny to watch him approach the water and then dance out of the way of the incoming waves.

Do we really have to leave?

I took this video of him charging ahead of me. He loves to sniff the seaweed.

So on to food.  Since I'm talking Maine and seafood and beaches, I thought I would share a favorite recipe from a few years ago.

One of our favorite places to eat a casual meal while we're here is the Maine Diner.  I had a wonderful lobster roll for lunch there, but my favorite dish to get is their lobster pie. 

The first time I ordered it, I was anticipating something along the lines of of chicken pot pie but with lobster. It turned out not to be nothing at all like that, but it was so much better.


After my first bite, I turned to my husband and said, "This tastes like Sam's fish."

Sam was an elderly man who cooked for my husband's even more elderly mother and aunt back when we were first married. They lived on a gorgeous estate on Cape Cod - 2 sisters and Sam and his wife.

My husband LOVED Sam's fish, so with my newlywed enthusiasm, I tried everything I could think of to replicate it. I bought every type of bread crumbs I could find, but the response was always, "Good, but not like Sam's."

Finally, in desperation, I told Sam my sad tale. He laughed and took me into the pantry where he shared his secret crust - Ritz crackers and butter. Yup. That was all. He'd smash the crackers, mix with melted butter, and layer onto the fish. So simple, but SO tasty. My marriage was safe!


So when I took that first bite of lobster pie this summer, and it tasted like lobster with Sam's crust, I was highly suspicious that I knew the special family recipe. In the name of research, I went into the gift shop and bought a cookbook of diner recipes which included the lobster pie. Sure enough - Ritz crackers and butter!

My Friday night dinner!

It was very good. Yum.

I haven't made Sam's fish in many years (in the name of low cholesterol and all that jazz), but after we returned home, I decided to give it a try for old times sake (and to post here). So without further ado - the 4 step fish recipe.

1. Smash the Ritz crackers. I do it in a baggie with an ice cream scoop.
2. Melt butter in microwave and mix in the cracker crumbs.
3. Spread on the fish (I used haddock. Sam always used sole.)
4. Bake. You can broil briefly at the end if you feel the need to brown the crumbs, but be careful!

Enjoy!

I'm curious. Have any of you ever made this?


As you can probably tell from the photo above, the lobster pie uses fresh lobster rather than haddock and they cook it in a mini casserole dish. So.much.goodness.

I'll leave you with some more photos of my favorite beach,

 And these from the Marginal Way.

Chicken Apple Salad Tea Sandwiches

My friend Debbie and are planning to host a tea later this year, so we ordered several sample-size packages of tea from Tea Embassy in Austin, Texas . 

We're looking, in particular, for dessert teas, which is why so many in the picture are fruity.

Of course, one can't simply sip tea after tea without something to eat, so we put together our own little informal tea party.

Tea for two, if you will.

Debbie brought some delicious cream scones.

Trust me, I'll be hounding her for the recipe for these babies.

Since we're thinking fall for our tea, I made some miniature spice cake cupcakes.

With cream cheese frosting, of course.

But we needed a savory. Something, preferably with apples and maybe a hint of spice. So I grabbed an apple, pulled a leftover grilled chicken breast out of the fridge and set to work.

When you're talking miniature food, these big ol slices of chicken just won't do, so I chopped them up fairly fine.

Then I tossed the chicken into a bowl and set to work on the apple, chopping it into tiny pieces, also.

I added the apple to the chicken, along with about a half teaspoon of cinnamon (because cinnamon goes very well with apples), and stirred everything together.

Next, I chopped up some toasted pecans and added those, along with approximately three tablespoons of mayonnaise. You're welcome to add more if you like, I just didn't want the mayo to overpower all of the other flavors.

Now for the sandwiches. But what if there was something we could do in leu of sandwiches. Something small and fun. I had some frozen phyllo cups, so I filled four of those. But since I still had plenty of chicken salad left over, I decided to do a few sandwiches for comparison purposes. One might taste better than the other.

They were both delicious, but Debbie and I agreed that the phyllo cups were just a tad better. Maybe because they were out of the ordinary.

Over the next two hours, Debbie and I ate, sipped tea and talked until our jaws hurt. Some of the teas were hits, others not so much. This is why the small packages are so nice. And we set a date for our tea. The next mission--come up with a menu. You know that'll be fun.

Have you ever hosted a tea? What are some of your favorite bite-sized morsels?

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

First Peek at the New Home!

Hi, everybody! And welcome to our new home!

The place is a mess, but come on in and I'll show you around.

Keep in mind that we've only been here for a week. You'll need to use your imagination...pretend you're reading a Better Homes and Gardens magazine article and the house is beautifully decorated!

That means you'll just have to ignore the pile of boxes...but we love the floor!

We'll start in the kitchen...

Oops! I don't have the dishwasher installed yet! We'll come back to the kitchen later. 

Let's start downstairs, instead.

This will be my office for now. I'm currently working in the corner where you see my desk chair. Not much more will be done to this room until my current book is finished! Priorities!

Eventually, this space will be a third bedroom and bath (pipes for bathroom fixtures are already in place.) It will be perfect for guests.

The other part of the basement is the family room. Not very family-friendly yet, is it? Another work in progress!

The former owner left this room divider/bookcase for us, and we love it. On the left side is a tiled area that leads to the patio (it's a walk-out basement). It will be a perfect place to take Jack out (when we bring him home in a few weeks!) 

We'll get the rest of this room sorted out eventually. Let's go back upstairs.

This is the living room portion of the great room. The house has an "open concept" arrangement, so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are all in one big space. The master bedroom and a second bedroom and bath complete this level, along with the laundry room just off the kitchen.

Here's the dining room. We need to get a light for above the table...and a table.... Meanwhile, we're eating most of our meals out on the deck!

Speaking of meals, let's check on the kitchen again...

Yay! The dishwasher is installed and the kitchen is beginning to look usable! And look at that! My Instant Pot is busy cooking chicken for tomorrow's salad.

And now that evening has come, we have to go out on the deck.

Ah! Dusk in the Black Hills. Across the road is one of the many ranches in this area. There is another one behind us. Lots of beautiful empty space.

We'll just turn to the west to get a picture of Mt. Rushmore...

...and just like that, it's sunset! Mt. Rushmore is there, I promise. In another 30 minutes it will be completely dark and we'll be able to see the white granite lit up for evening visitors. Too bad that doesn't translate to a photograph!

We'll continue to work on the unpacking and settling in, but writing comes first! We hope to be ready for our annual Thanksgiving dinner in November, but meanwhile we'll enjoy our new home just the way it is!

Thanks for coming along for the tour!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-seven years.