Chicken and dumplings

I made chicken and dumplings last night.  They turned out soooooooo good!!!

First, get the usual suspects together.


Cut 'em up really small.


Heat up some oil in a big pot.  Some use vegetable oil but I use Rachel Ray's method of heating up 2 TBSP of olive oil, then melting 2 TBSP of butter into it.


Season some boneless/skinless chicken breasts w/ salt and pepper then drag them through some flour.  Put them in the pot and brown them on both sides.  Don't cook them all the way through, just get them brown.


Take them out and set them aside.  Can you believe how freaking BIG these are?  I would hate to run into this chicken in a dark alley.  And don't they look good?  Looks like they have crispy skin on them.  Nope, it's just from browning them in the pan.


Now throw your veggies in the pot and cook them until they start to get soft but are not mush.


Add some spices.  You don't need too much because the veggies and the bits that cooked off the chicken give it lots of flavor.  I got the idea using tumeric from the pioneer lady's recipe.  Never used it before but I sure glad I did this time!!!


Add 6 cups of chicken broth.  See all those dark bits that rise to the top?  Yum!


Toss your chicken back in.  Breast meat sometimes gets dry but you're kind of poaching it in there and they won't dry out.  Cover and simmer for about 15-20 min.


Make your dumplings.  Ugh with the people telling you to make them from scratch.  It's Bisquick all the way baby!  I make the recipe from the back of the box and throw in some dried parsley just like mom did.


Take the chicken out and shred it then throw it back in.  I shit you not, it tastes like KFC chicken without all the grease, skin and blubber.  I think I might have figured out their secret recipe.


Scoop out the dough and just plop it right into the simmering pot.  Put the lid on, but leave a crack for steam, and let them cook for whatever the Bisquick box says- I think like 15 minutes.  Then it's done and YUMMY!!!!


I made a simple salad with a bag of broccoli slaw and Vidalia Onion vinagrette.  It was good!  Especially after it sat for a bit in the fridge.


Eat up!

2 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP butter

½ cups flour

3-4 bones skinless chicken breasts

salt and pepper

2 diced carrots

3 diced celery stalks

1 diced medium sized onion

1/2 tsp ground thyme

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp

6 C chicken broth

Bisquick dumplings

Season chicken with salt and pepper, then drag through flour.

Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Melt butter into oil. Brown chicken on both sides, remove and set aside.

Don’t drain the oil.  Add the diced veggies, stir and cook for 5 or so minutes until soft but not mushy.  Stir in garlic powder, tumeric and thyme. Add chicken broth.  Once combined, add the chicken back in. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

This is a good time to make the dumplings.  Follow the recipe on the Bisquick box.  

Remove chicken from pot and shred or chop up the chicken.  Put back into pot.  Now, most of the recipes I looked at said to put in cream or half and half at this point.  I just don’t use that stuff so I did add about 1/2 cup of skim milk at this point.  I don’t know if it did any good but since every chicken and dumplings recipe called for some kind of cream I felt like I had to put it in.  :o) Stir to combine.

Drop spoon of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. 

Enjoy!!!