What we all will eat when she comes.

Chicken and Dumplings 

This is one of those things like Chicken Paprika or Chili or Chicken Soup or whatever, where everybody's mom has a different recipe. Really, it's just some boiled chicken and some wet biscuits, so it doesn't matter too much what you put in it.


It's easiest for me to use a dutch oven, but a stock pot would work just fine.


Also, you are going to want to start about 3 hours before you want to eat. Plan ahead, people.


1. Cut up a chicken into its useful parts. If it is small (about 3 lbs) use the whole thing. If it is big, use about half. You can also use a few thighs or breasts or whatever chicken parts you might have. Don't bother taking the skin off or the bones out.

2. Toss that into your cold dutch oven. We are going to pull the skin off later, so there is no need to brown any of it.

3. Toss into the dutch oven with the chicken 1 chopped up onion, 3 large chopped up carrots, 2 chopped up celery stalks, and whatever herbs and spices you like. I like thyme. I threw in a bunch. And some turmeric. Throw in a tsp of pepper and a little more than that of salt. The vegetable amounts are not terribly important. I made this on the fly last time and didn't have any celery. So I replaced the celery with nothing and things worked out fine. I also replaced the big carrots with about a dozen or so baby carrots.


4. Pour over the chicken about 3 or four cups of broth. Pour in enough water on top of that to make sure that the chicken is covered. You can add some chicken bouillon to the water if you want your chicken to be extra chicken-y.

5. Bring to a boil.

6. Reduce to a simmer.

7. Keep on simmering. (About 2 hours)

8. Pull the chicken out with a pair of tongs and set aside to cool. You can do this with your bare-hands, but you probably shouldn't.

9. Keep those veggies simmering or don't. The veggies don't mind.

10. Pull the skin off the chicken and feed that to your dog.

11. Pull the meat off the chicken bones and throw that back into the simmering pot. If you turned it off before, turn it back on.

12. Throw the chicken bones away. They're no good for your dog. He'll poop weird and it'll be gross.

13. Make some dumplings. You can make a nice, light, fluffy dumping with 1 cup cake flour, 2 tsp baking powder, an eggs and some milk. But my mom always used Bisquick and I had some Bisquick in the house. So listen to there recipe. I think it is 2 cups Bisquick and 2/3 cup milk. When the dough is uniform, use a tablespoon to drop it into the simmering stock.

14. Simmer the dumplings uncovered for 5 minutes, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes more.

15. Now, you've got chicken and dumplings and she can come and wear red pajamas and ride some white horses and sleep with grandma.

I never realized how lewd that song was.


Anywhoozle, you got to eat this stuff right away. The dumplings will disintegrate on you if you keep a pot of leftovers in your fridge. Then again, that just makes the whole thing a thicker soup, so do whatever the hell you want.