Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

This original recipe from East Texas features the flat kind of chewy dumplings, created by rolling out the dough on a mat and cutting into strips, then rectangles.

This recipe takes 2-1/2 to 3 hours to make. Try cooking the chicken and broth one day, then finishing up the day you are serving. Or make the entire batch on the weekend and portion out for the coming week’s meals. If you are short on time, jump to the “Cheater’s Chicken and Dumplings” version instead.

Chicken and Broth Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (you should be able to find this kind of ‘pre-cut pieces’ package near the packages of fresh chicken drumsticks, thighs, and breasts.
• 1 gallon plus 1 quart of water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large can cream of chicken soup (about 26 oz); this is the final ingredient and is added at the very end of cooking the meal.

Dumpling Ingredients

• 3 cups unsifted flour, plus 1/2 Cup to 1 Cup more as needed to stiffen dough
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (comes in a can, not the yellow box which is baking soda)
• 1/2 Cup chilled chicken broth
• 1/2 Cup milk

Place all the pieces of chicken, except the giblets (gizzard, liver, heart) into a large pot. Dispose of the giblets or use however you like. I don’t like the feel of the tiny neck bones when I’m shredding the cooked meat, so I also dispose of the neck piece but that’s a personal foible; feel free to leave yours in the pot.

Pour 1 gallon and 1 quart of water over the chicken pieces, add the salt and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. When the broth begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium high and cook, uncovered, for 1-1/2 hours.

Turn off the burner and move the pot away from the heat.

Remove the chicken pieces from the hot broth with tongs, or pour the contents of the pot through a strainer into a very large bowl that will hold almost 2 gallons.

Set aside 1/2 Cup and 1 Cup of the broth to cool. The smaller portion will be used with the dumplings and the larger portion will be used with the cream of chicken soup at the end.

Scatter the chicken pieces over a cutting board so they will continue cooling while you mix up the dumplings.

To make dumpling dough, add flour, salt and baking powder to a large bowl. Pour in 1/2 Cup milk and 1/2 Cup cooled chicken broth. Mix gently. Add more flour if the dough won’t hold it’s shape at all. You want a dough that is just stiff enough to turn out of the bowl onto a floured mat in order to roll it out and cut it. Too much flour will turn the dumplings tougher than is ideal.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured mat, coat rolling pin in flour, and gently roll out to about 1/4-1/2 inch thickness.

Cut the dough into long strips, then cross-wise to make rectangles. The actual shape won’t matter because the dumplings twist when they are dropped into the boiling broth.

Leave the dough squares on the mat while you debone the chicken.

Discard chicken skin, bones and gristle and shred or cut the chicken meat into bitesize pieces. Cover and save until the dumplings are cooked.

Return the pot of broth to the burner, turn the heat back to high and bring the broth to a boil.

While you wait for the boil, add the reserved 1 Cup of chicken broth slowly to the cream of chicken soup to thin it down without leaving lumps. Set aside.

Now that the broth is boiling, drop in the dumplings. These dumplings are coated enough with flour that they don’t stick together but lightly stir the pot after every 10-12 dumplings are added to be sure. Move quick. All the dumplings should be in the boiling broth within 5 minutes. Cook 10 minutes more after last dumpling is added.

Add the cut chicken to the pot of broth and dumplings.

Pour in the thinned cream of chicken soup and stir gently to combine.

Serve hot!

Makes about 12-16 cups of chicken and dumplings.

 

Cheater’s Chicken and Dumplings

This easy recipe takes advantage of store-bought ingredients.

• 1 lb. chicken tenders
• 1 quart to ½ gallon water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 quart or 32 oz. Swanson’s chicken broth
• 1 roll cheap refrigerator biscuits (10 biscuits in a roll)
• 1 can Campbell’s cream of chicken soup

Bring chicken tenders and about 1 quart of water to a boil with salt and pepper.  Boil until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken tenders to a plate and cut into bite sized pieces when cool.  Keep pot of seasoned water (now a thin broth thanks to cooking chicken in it) hot.  Add Swanson’s chicken broth and return to a boil.  Open the can of biscuits and cut each biscuit in half (half-moon pieces).  Drop biscuits into boiling broth.  Stir to separate.  When biscuits are puffed up and cooked through, return chicken to pot and add cream of chicken soup to thicken.  Stir gently until all ingredients are well combined.

Serves 4 with a small amount of leftovers.  You can stretch it to serve 6-8 by adding two sides like a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber, and a bowl of sliced cantaloupe or other melon.

Other options:

• For working moms and dads, cook the chicken on Saturday or Sunday and reserve both chicken and resulting broth in a covered container until the night for this meal.  The rest of the preparation can be done in about 15 minutes.
• Need a meal in a pinch?  Use canned chicken, Swanson’s broth, soup and left-over flour tortillas which have been cut into 1-inch wide strips.  Strips will break apart and take on the appearance of thin dumplings when stirring.
• Want a more hearty meal?  Cut 2 stalks celery, 1 cup baby carrots and ¼ onion into bite-size pieces and cook with chicken.  Complete rest of steps as indicated.  Vegetables can remain in broth when cooking dumplings.

Carlyn Foshee Chatfield

Chicken and Dumplings for 20

If you need to feed a lot of people and don’t have a big budget, chicken and dumplings can be a cheap and filling one-bowl meal.

• 20 chicken tenders
• 2 quarts Swanson Chicken Broth
• 5 carrots, sliced to bite-size (fit easily in an eating spoon)
• 5 ribs celery, sliced to bite-size (fit easily in an eating spoon)
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced to bite-size (fit easily in an eating spoon)
• 4 cans cheap refrigerator biscuits
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 3 cans cream of chicken soup

Cover chicken tenders with water in large soup pot.  Add salt and pepper and chopped vegetables.  Bring soup to boil.  Boil for 5 minutes and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked through.  (Tip: this mixture can simmer all day on low heat in a crockpot and you can finish the recipe when you get home from school or work.)

Remove vegetables and chicken from water (by now a thin broth).  Shred chicken.  Cover shredded chicken and vegetables to keep warm while working on dumplings.

Cut each of the round biscuits into half moons; each biscuit makes 2 dumplings.

Add Swanson’s chicken broth to water that covered chicken and bring liquids to a boil.  Drop in dumplings and stir once with a wooden spoon to separate.  Continue adding dumplings and stirring (not too much!) to separate, until all biscuit pieces are in the boiling broth.  Add the chicken soup to the shredded chicken and vegetables and add this mixture to the dumpling pot.  Stir gently to combine; too much stirring breaks up dumplings.

Need even more?  Double the ingredients to server 40, but don’t try to cook everything at once. This recipe is hard to double and still get all the dumplings cooked and tender.  Make two separate pots instead.

Carlyn Foshee Chatfield