Yep, we're making chicken and dumplings for dinner today. It's the first day of Nov, it's cool and it's gonna get dark early...I need no other reason for chicken and dumplings! :)
So..remember that chicken we made and all those pan juices we had left over? That will be the beginning of our soup.
Measure out about 3 to 4 C of water into a big pot.
Add your leftover chicken, 2 tsp (more or less) chicken bullion (I use a powder) and the leftover pan juices, turn the heat on medium and let it simmer cook for about an hour.
Why do I do this if the chicken is already cooked?
To leach all the goodness from the bones and meat that I can for my soup base ..oh yes..ONE HOUR. :)
While that's going on. saute up some celery..this is two stalks. Nope..no onions. :) Didn't need it..trust me!
Time for some dumplings'
Now some call these dumplings, some call them slippery noodles but you know what *I* called these..PILLOWS! Yep, I didn't leave them long like a noodle and didn't do a round lump like a biscuit.. since I cut them into little bite size squares, they are pillows! So here's what I did.
Measure out 1 1/2 Cups self rising flour.
Add about 2 tablespoons of solid shortening (crisco, lard or even butter)
Mix it in with your fingers till it's crumbly and add milk. I didn't measure the milk, but it was about 1/2 C. Mix with a spoon and give it a good stir till it all mixes together and gets sticky. It'll look like this:
Then I put a small pile of flour on the counter, poured the dough mix onto it, sprinkled a little more flour on top and began kneading the flour in until the dough was not sticky. DO this as LITTLE as possible. The more you do it, the tougher the dumpling will be and who wants tough dumplings?
HINT: If you want drop dumplings, this is where you stop. No kneading, no rolling, just the sticky dough. You'll use a very small spoon and put spoonfulls of the dough into the boiling broth.
Let your dough rest for a few mins. While it's resting, strain out all the bones, and chicken and let it cool for a min. Add 1 to 2 more cups of water to replace what was lost. Add your celery, salt and pepper and taste your broth. I added a PINCH and I do mean a pinch of sage at this point. Taste it!! Add more of what you may think it needs.
Chicken soup with our without dumplings should have a 'light' taste. Not heavy and over spiced.
Clean the bones of all chicken and put the chicken chunks and pieces back into the broth.
Start bringing this up to a boil.
Let's get back to the dumplings
I rolled out the dough (very little) to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. How thick you roll it depends on what type of dumplin you want. Something like a thick noodle..do it like above. If you want it thicker..don't roll as much. It's pretty easy!
I used this handy little tool right here and cut the dough into squares. Remember, this dough will almost double in size and I wanted these 'bite' size, so I cut them about 2x2. (I said ABOUT..some came out smaller, some bigger..(shrug..it's all good!)
Start dropping the pillows into the boiling broth. (or spoonfulls of the sticky dough if you chose not to make pillows)
One or two at a time till they are all in. Stir. Cover and cook for 5
mins. When you uncover it, this is what you will have!
How cool is that??
ENJOY!!!
