Recipe and Tips: Thick Chicken and Dumplings

Hi LaDonna,

Here are some posts from rec.food with some good tips for thickening broth follwed by a Chicken and Dumpling recipe.

Betsy

Thickening the liquid for Chicken and Dumplings

From: minator987@prodigy.net (J P )
Date: 1997/11/20
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking

The way I always do it is make a roux. If you've got about four quarts of dumplings, put 3/4 cup of flour in a separate pot. Add 1/4 cup veg. oil and stir using medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then ladel the dumpling broth into the roux while stirring constantly. First it will look like gravy, but when it looks like a thick liquid, pour it back into the dumplings.

From: Raymond@worldnet.att.net
Date: 1997/11/17
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking

On Mon, 17 Nov 1997 08:12:57 -0800, Tracey
wrote:

>>I make chicken and dumplings simliar to this also. But I always
>>have to add an ungodly amount of flour (or cornstarch) to thicken
>>the liquid. Any suggestions on a thicker liquid? I dont like
>>chiken and dumplings ala soup, I like them real thick!
>
>When I made Raymond's dumplings a week or so ago, I told my
>mother that the broth was too thin. She said to make sure there
>was plenty of flour left on the dumplings and that would thicken
>the broth. When she said that, I remembered that her dumplings
>always looked like they had been dusted with flour. Between her
>rolling of the dough, she would always 'dust' them with the flour
>so they looked almost like they had powdered sugar on them.

Your Mother is right on, and I should have made that clearer in my post. My grandmother used cream, right out of the separator, so hers were plenty thick, but my mother uses milk, sometimes even low-fat milk. Both used plenty of flour in rolling out the dumplings, and if the broth still wasn't thick enough, they whisked a couple of spoonfulls of flour into a half-cup of milk and dumped it into the pot. If you do that, mash the flour against the side of the cup with the back of spoon when mixing it to make sure you get the tiny lumps out. I'm going to add all this to my recipe so it gets posted correctly next time.

Raymond


Here's Raymonds Chicken and Dumplings post that he was referring to in the above message:



Subject: Re: Chicken and Dumplings
From: Raymond@worldnet.att.net
Date: 1997/11/07
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking

On Thu, 06 Nov 1997 12:41:21 -0600, "Edward J. Ujhazy Jr."
wrote:

>I am looking for a recipe for chicken and dumplings. Could you please
>help?
>
Okay, Edward, pay attention. You're going to get some posts for dumpling recipes that have baking powder in them. You're going to ignore those, right? You're from Auburn, right? Auburn is the 51st state, right? Auburn was one of the states that seceded from the Union, right? And what's the definition of the Union? "A bunch of states where people put baking powder in flour and call it dumplings." That's the definition of the Union. Well, if it has baking powder in it, it ain't dumplings, it's biscuits, and the dish ain't "chicken 'n dumplin's", it's "chicken-flavored water with biscuits floatin' on top." And you also don't want to spend a lot of money, right? Because you're a college student and you want maximum utilization of expenditures, right? And you ain't no Chef (See other threads) so it's gotta be easy to fix, right? Okay, so here's my grandma's...

Chicken 'N Dumplin's

1 chicken, about three pounds or so
1 half-pint of milk or cream

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp shortening (That's Crisco)
1 egg
5 Tbsp water

First, cut the chicken in half. Right down the middle. Makes it easier to cook. In fact, I cut the halves in half. If you want, you can just get a couple of packages of thighs, or whatever parts you like. It's easier that way, but it'll cost you more. Wash it good all over under the faucet. Put it into a stewing pot with enough water (my Grandma called it "wooder") to cover the chicken about two inches. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and let it simmer until done, about 30 minutes. While it's cooking, every once in a while skim the foam off of the top of the water with a spoon and sling it into the sink, then turn the chicken in the pot..

While it's cooking, make the dumplings. Mix flour, salt, shortening. Crumble it in your hands until it looks like flour beebees. Add egg and water and mix it well. Pat it into a big circle, dust it with flour, and roll it out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Let it rest 15 minutes.

By now the chicken should be done. Take it out of the pot and let it cool until you can handle it. Remove the meat from the chicken and discard all the rest (skin and bones and some unknown stuff). Chop the meat into bite-sized chunks.

Bring the broth back to a boil. Cut the dumplings into strips about one-inch wide (I use a pizza cutter to do this). Pick up the strips one at a time and pinch off pieces and drop them into the boiling broth. Every so often, stop and stir to make sure they're not sticking together (I use a wooden spoon to do this). When all the dumplings are in the broth, let the whole thing cook about five more minutes, then test a dumpling to see if it has the texture you want. It should be done by now, but if the dumpling is still raw in the middle, let it all cook a little longer. Finally, add about a half-teaspoon of salt and taste to see if it needs more.

Now add the milk or cream and dump the chicken back into the pot. Bring the whole thing back to a boil, spoon it into a bowl and dust it with black pepper.