Southern Chicken And Dumplings Recipe

How to make it

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• This is a really easy recipe and you can make it in about an hour.
• Largest pot you have add water, chicken and salt. Bring to a rapid boil until the chicken is cooked. (You can do this the night before and chill or hours before dinner time and chill) This is the most time consuming part of the recipe.
• Scoop chicken out and set in a strainer to cool.
• Take out about 3 cups of broth and set aside.
• On your counter or work space take at least 3 cups of flour in mixing bowl and add the broth slowly and stir until you get to a thick consistency, kind of like a pizza dough, it will roll out so whether you add the flour now or later, it will be the same. The dough mixture will be hot so stir and add the broth slowly. If you do not use it all that is ok, you can add it back to the pot later. Flour your work space. Dump the flour ball on to the table and dust with more flour. Let stand for about 5 or 10 minutes.
• At this time you can start pulling the chicken off the bone. Remove all the extra fat/skin and bone. Pull the white meat and dark meat, more like a shredding consistency. When you are finished place back into the pot. The broth should be at a rolling boil. I find that adding the chicken back in at this point makes it more tender and breaks them down into bite size pieces in case you didn’t.
• If the broth is not boiling rapidly, the dumplings will not cook thoroughly.
• Now back to the table dust with flour your rolling pin, and roll out the dough ball to about 1/8 inch thick. Have a pizza cutter? Use that to cut out squares about 1 inch, if not then the back of a butter knife or a shot glass for round dumplings. With the dumplings and there are a lot, but do not worry you will use them all. They should be dusted well with flour.
• I take the odd looking dumplings first, because the 1st batch of dumplings you add will cook so fast that they will break apart and turn into the thickening part of the soup. Remember to add the dumplings 1 at a time not to just dump them in, this will help keep their shape and will not let them break apart. The first 15 or so dumplings (odd ones) will puff up when you add them to the broth and then they will flatten back out, stir the pot so that they do not stick and keep adding the dumplings keeping each one separate from the other so that they get bathed in the broth. By the 30 or 40 dumpling you will see that the soup is getting thicker and you are having to stir to mix the raw dumpling into the mixture. Once you have reached this point, you will see that the 1st groups of dumplings are gone and the others are their keeping their perfect form. Turn off the heat. If you find that it is too thick, remember the extra broth about a cup or so, add it back in. If it is the right texture for you, then turn off the heat and put the cover on for about 5 minutes, this will make sure the last group of dumplings is fully cooked. At this time you can taste for saltiness. If you need more, then go for it, if not then just add the pepper and give it a few slow stirs and it is time to enjoy this easy and simple dish.
• I like to add the broth to my dumplings mixture so that the dumplings are not a flour taste, they chicken broth is evenly incorporated through out the dish. Also you drop the dumplings in 1 at a time in groups of 5-10 you will see that you will keep their form and have the perfect dumpling.