Back to the Beginning with Chicken and Dumplings

I can't believe it was nine years ago this month that I joined the Yankee-Belle Cafe. Ruthy, aka The Yank, and Missy, aka The Belle, decided to add to the menu by offering up Tuesdays with the Texan. And that very first recipe I shared is still one of my favorites. 

Good old fashioned chicken and dumplings are one of my family's favorites when the weather turns cool. Comfort food to the max. My girls' great-grandmother taught me how to make them, which means I learned from the best. Many of Lois's recipes are forever woven into the fabric of my family.

The first thing we need to do is make our chicken stock, which will also provide us with the chicken half of our chicken and dumplings. So, in a large Dutch oven or stock pot, add one chicken (or whatever type of chicken meat you might have on hand), two or three carrots cut into thirds, a couple stalks of celery, one onion, quartered, some salt and pepper. I like to skin my chicken so there isn't as much fat in the broth, but that's a personal preference.

Add three quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for a little while before removing chicken and vegetables. Strain broth, discarding solids.

Once the bird is cool enough to touch, remove the meat from the bone and chop into bite-size pieces. For the most part, the veggies don't make it into the soup, however I like to smash the carrots into tiny pieces and add those.

Return broth to Dutch oven, along with the chicken, and bring to boiling. 

While you're waiting for the broth to boil, prepare your dumplings.

Combine:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp. vegetable or canola oil 
• Approx. 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups self-rising flour (if the mixture seems too sticky, add more flour in small amounts)

Turn dough onto a floured surface and kneed a handful of times.

From here, it's up to your personal preference. Some like their dumplings big, others like them small. I like a bite of dumpling in every spoonful. My sons want as few dumplings as possible. Personally, I think that's just wrong, but they're brats.

You can roll out the dough and cut it into pieces. That's too much work for me so I flatten a portion of dough on a cutting board, slice into strips, then cut the dumplings into the boiling broth mixture with a scrapper or knife. Remember, you can add as many or as few as you like.

Once you've added your dumplings, reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Then get ready for a bowlful of pleasure. 

Now, if you find making the dumplings intimidating, here's a secret shortcut Greatmom sometimes used--canned biscuits. Simply break or cut them into pieces and drop into the boiling broth. Easy-peasy.

A lot has changed in the last nine years. But one thing that will never change is our love of family and food. Good food that stirs fond memories and continues generation after generation.

What's family favorite dish that has been passed down through the generations at your house?

Award-winning author Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, two sassy pups, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com

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!

Chicken and Dumplings

Mindy here with a bit of a headache. You see, I've been banging my head against the wall, trying to decide what to share with y'all today. I didn't even have any cool pictures I could share. I finally came up with something, however, I knew I'd shared it before, so I searched the archives to discover that not only had I, indeed, shared this favored recipe with you before, it was my very first post here at the Yankee-Belle Café, six years ago this week. Hard to believe I've been here this long. I thought for sure Ruthy and Missy would get sick of me and kick me out after a couple of months. But here I am. So rather than rework my original post, I thought I'd leave it intact. Just for fun.

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Happy Tuesday, Yankee-Belle faithfuls. Well, the Yank and the Belle have gone and done it now. They've given this Texan--aka Mindy Obenhaus--keys to the cafe. Yep, no telling what you might find jalapenos or chipotle in now.

Ah, but we Texans aren't all about Tex-Mex. We like good ol' down home comfort food too. Actually, I'll let you in on a little secret. I grew up a Yankee. However, I got to Texas as fast as I could. I love everything about Texas. The people, the food, the diversity of this great state, and the heat. Okay, I fibbed on that last one.

Once I got here, though, I latched onto a great-mom and grandmama who knew how to cook. That means I learned from the best. Given my dual heritage, though, I'm just glad Ruthy didn't decide to call this Tuesdays with the Tank.

Today we'll continue Ruthy's fowl comfort food theme with Great-mom's chicken and dumplings. I LOVE this stuff. And if chicken soup is good for the soul, chicken and dumplings must be a double blessing.

First we need to make our chicken stock, which will also provide us with the chicken half of our chicken and dumplings. So, in a large dutch oven or stock pot, add one chicken (I leave mine whole, but remove the skin so there's less fat), two or three carrots cut into thirds, a couple stalks of celery (I left the leaves on mine), one onion, quartered, 1 Tbs. salt (I use kosher), and  3/4 tsp. ground black pepper or 1 1/2 tsp. peppercorns. After I took this picture I found some thyme in the fridge, so I added a couple sprigs of that as well.

Now add three quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour.

Cool slightly, then remove chicken and vegetables. Strain broth, discarding solids.

Once the bird has cooled, remove the meat from the bone and shred. The veggies don't make it into the soup, however they do make a great snack.

Return broth to stove, add chicken, and bring to boiling. *NOTE* I try to skim as much of the fat as possible from the broth. If there's time, I will put it in the fridge and then skim.

While you're waiting for the broth to boil, prepare your dumplings.

Combine:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil (I use canola)
• Approx. 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups self-rising flour (if the mixture seems too sticky, add more flour in small amounts)

Turn dough onto a floured surface and kneed a handful of times.

From here, it's up to your personal preference. Some like their dumplings big, others like them small. I like a bite of dumpling in every spoonful. My sons want as little dumplings as possible. Personally, I think that's just wrong, but they're brats.

You can roll out the dough and cut it into pieces. That's too much work for me so I flatten a portion of dough on a cutting board, slice into strips, then cut the dumplings into the boiling broth mixture with a scrapper or knife. Remember, you can add as many or as few as you like.

Once you've added all your dumplings, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Then you're ready for a bowlful of pleasure. One sure to warm the cockles of your heart (Does anyone know just where that is?).

Now, if you're intimidated by making the dumplings, here's a secret shortcut--canned biscuits. (Ooo, did y'all hear Ruthy gasp?) Just break or cut them into pieces and drop into boiling broth. Easy-peasy.

Oh, here comes Ruthy again. She's been pacing the kitchen the entire time. She's so protective of the cafe. Missy's at the counter, hiding behind her laptop. Man, her fingers are moving across that keyboard faster than a Texas tornado. Looks like she's got a new story brewing. Speaking of brewing, I think Ruthy's gone through that entire pot of coffee already. Don't worry, gang, I gotcha covered.

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Here we are, back to present day. That was fun, though. You know, Ruthy still paces the kitchen. Except for this past week, because she's been sick. But as we all know, not even the flu can defeat our precious Yank. She might have slowed down a little, but she's too determined to let anything beat her. 

I'm still blown away that I've been here at the Yankee-Belle for six years. It seems like only yesterday. No matter how long it's been, though, I've loved every minute.

Now it's your turn. So what do you want to talk about? Ruthy? Your favorite soup? A special relative who taught you how to cook? The upcoming BIG game? The floor is yours. Have at it.

Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She's 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 at www.MindyObenhaus.com  

Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Missy Tippens

I've had a wild week. No time to cook or do much of anything. So I'm re-sharing an old post from 2013. Enjoy!

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!

Chicken and Dumplings Revisited (Again) :)

Missy, here. I'm actually sharing a post that I did for the Craftie Ladies of Romance blog in 2010 and again here in August 2012. In 2012 I updated it (you see those notes in red). Thought I'd share it again with y'all. It's my husband's favorite dish.

Chicken and Dumplings
Missy Tippens

 I wanted to do something different today. I recently watched Alton Brown on the Food Network in an episode of his show, Good Eats, where his mother and mother-in-law (in doll form) battled it out over which type of dumplings to make--the southern rolled out and cut ones ("hard" as my family calls them) or the northern drop dumplings ("fluffy" as we call them). It was a cute show. And it inspired me to try something different. So I decided to try making the northern type--which we prefer anyway! But this was the big time. I wasn't going to be using Bisquick to make a dough to drop into broth. No, I was making them from scratch! :)

Also, every time I make chicken and dumplings, my family tells me to lose the chicken and just make more dumplings. So this time, I got a big box of chicken broth and used that. (Not a piece of meat to ruin their meal of starch.) :)

So here's the recipe as I made it. (For the original, click here.)


INGREDIENTS:

A large box of chicken broth plus some water to bring it to about 8 cups. Heat to simmering. (or use the broth from cooking your chicken--which I did this time, using chicken breast tenderloins.)
3 Tbs. butter
1/2 c all purpose flour
2 large eggs at room temp
1/2 tsp. salt

Put 1/2 c of the broth, the butter and a 1/2 ts salt in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Once it boils, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon, about 1 minute.



Then decrease heat to low and keep stirring until the mixture forms a ball and is no longer sticky, about 3 minutes. (Note, this didn't happen for me. It never formed a nice ball like it did for Alton.)

[Update: Since this flopped last time, I tried using self-rising flour this time. It did seem to form a better ball.]

Transfer to a mixing bowl and mix on low speed for 5 minutes with electric hand mixer. Beat until cool. [You can see I tossed it in the stand mixer instead this time. Used the pastry hook, then switched to the whisk to blend in the eggs better.]

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing in the first before adding the second.

Transfer dough to a gallon size ziplock baggie. Cut off one corner so it's about a quarter-size opening. [This doesn't make much. A quart baggie is big enough.]

Squeeze out 1 inch of the mixture, then snip off with kitchen scissors right into the simmering broth. Repeat until empty. 

Cook, covered (without stirring!) about 8-10 minutes. Turn off heat. If you're using chicken, add back in now. Wait 2-3 minutes before serving.


Though my process didn't go quite like Alton's, the dumplings were yummy. And cute! And honestly, they were more like hard dumplings in my opinion, not fluffy like I was expecting. [The version with self-rising flour turned out a little fluffier. Aren't they cute?!]

I hope you enjoy. How do you make your dumpings? Northern or southern?? :)