Chicken and Dumplings

This should actually be called The Best Chicken and Dumplings You’ll Ever Eat, but I’ve heard that unless you’re Fallout Boy, you should keep your titles short and keep all the necessary vowels.

I decided yesterday that I wanted chicken and dumplings for supper. I had a whole chicken in the freezer, so I tossed it in the sink to thaw – and before anyone points out how that’s bad and I should thaw it in the refrigerator – I don’t have six weeks to thaw this chicken. Have you ever tried to thaw a whole bird in the fridge? It. Takes. Days.

Then I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if chicken and dumplings had veggies in it? Why yes, I answered, it would be really good. Well, I thought, make it so!

So I did.

So I’ve seen recipes where they say to use boneless skinless chicken breasts to make a healthy meal. Um. No. Don’t ever do that. Chicken and dumplings requires a whole bird. Bones, skin, and all. Did you know that grandma was right about chicken soup being good for pretty much all ailments? That’s because in grandma’s day, chicken soup was made using the whole bird. Bones, skin and all.

There are numerous health benefits to chicken broth, and more to chicken stock, and even more to bone broth. For chicken and dumplings, you’re going to boil that whole chicken for around an hour, which creates a nice, healthy chicken broth.

But don’t throw away the bones, organs, and skin! Use them to make chicken stock or bone broth or dog food.

Ingredients:

One whole chicken
Water
3-4 stalks celery
3-4 large carrots
1 large onion
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 can evaporated milk minus one quarter cup

Dumplings:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp broth out of boiled chicken
1/2 cup milk (I mixed 1/4 cup evaporated milk and 1/4 cup water)

Place chicken in large pot and add just enough water to cover it. Add two sprigs of rosemary and either 2 cloves of garlic or copious amounts of garlic powder – I don’t know, I didn’t measure the powder for this step. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce heat, and cover. Let the chicken simmer for one to two hours, until the meat is falling off the bones. Remove the chicken from the pot and place in a metal mixing bowl to cool.

Dice the celery, carrots, and onion. Add to pot and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer while the chicken cools.

Once the chicken has cooled enough to touch, strip the meat from the bones and shred it. I combine that step and shred the meat as I toss it into the pot. Once you’ve done, place the bones in a separate pot to make chicken stock or bone broth.

Add the measured seasonings and remaining sprig of rosemary. Let everything cook together for 15 – 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, assemble the dumplings by mixing all of the dry ingredients then adding the liquids and mixing until you have a nice dough.

Add evaporated milk to the pot and stir well.

Now it’s time to add the dumplings. Drop them in however you like. You can do it by the spoonful, or you can pinch off pieces of the dough and drop them in. I favor the latter method.

A note on the dumplings: I actually wound up making a second batch of dumplings because my son, his girlfriend, my husband, and I made short work of the first batch. So if you’re feeding hungry people like I do, you might want to double your dumplings.