Easier Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

If there is one hour in my day that I wish to have all to my own, it would be 3 p.m. Back in the day, before work and school schedules conspired to block that hour nearly every single day of 30 something weeks of the year, 3 o'clock was naptime for the kidoodle and my time to leisurely begin supper. Two to three hours was a generous amount of time to prepare a meal ~ enough for a braised chicken with vegetables, or maybe a pot roast. I could turn out a dessert in that time frame, too, with a bit of luck and the right ingredients in my well-stocked pantry.

These days, I rush from work to two different schools, gather and sometimes redistribute children to piano lessons, play practices, what-have-you. And I rush back home to come up with supper. Sometimes, my wonderful husband will cook, usually a roast or lasagna that he prepared ahead of time, or a quick meal of fish and vegetables. And I get my act together occasionally, making stir-fries and fried rice and roasted chicken. And there are other nights when dinner is a grilled cheese sandwich or its South of the Border cousin, a cheese quesadilla.

So I await with interest what my fellow #LetsLunchers will create under the theme "3 Ingredient Recipes." #LetsLunch is a monthly gathering of food writers and bloggers who post on a given subject. This month's topic is quick recipes using just 3 ingredients. My go-to 3-ingredient recipe is pimento cheese, so maybe I'm not the best choice for this go-round.

Back to that magic hour that I wish I could call my own ~ in the past year, I've given up on Top 40 radio and NPR and switched to the Fish, the contemporary Christian radio station. All the girls in the car, from elementary to mommy agree. And one of the best reasons to listen to the Fish is afternoon drive host Beth Bacall ~ she's a mommy and a foodie, so I'm fed spiritually and mentally while I'm listening to her. 

One day Beth happened to mention that she had a recipe for "3-Ingredient Chicken Parmesan" and she would happily reply to email requests for the recipe. Here's the link for the recipe ~ it's one of those "dump and do" recipes that I need more of in order to turn out a tasty dinner in a reasonable amount of time. The recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts, coated in mayonnaise and shredded Parmesan cheese and baked. I served it with rice and a green vegetable and my girls ate every bite. I'm sad to say that I didn't get a picture of the chicken, it was nice and roasty-toasty looking when it came out of the oven.

I decided to make the recipe a second time and grab a picture for this post, when my eldest daughter revealed what she really wanted for supper, and it was not a 3-ingredient recipe: Chicken and Dumplings. Done properly, c and d is not a 3-ingredient recipe, it's a 3-part recipe: Broth, chicken, dumplings. The three components harmonize into a complete and completely satisfying dish.

Dumplings. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In the spirit of 3 ingredients, I therefore present my streamlined recipe for chicken and dumplings, perfect for those weeknights when you have a little extra time and some helping hands.

Chicken and dumplings. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books.

Easier Chicken and Dumplings

My from-scratch recipe can be found here. It starts with a whole chicken. Here, I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts and doctored-up stock-in-a-box to speed things up. If you have leftover cooked chicken, save even more time by using it here.

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stars celery, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

1 (32 oz.) package low-sodium chicken broth

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook the chicken until cooked through, about 10 minutes.


2. In a soup pot or Dutch oven set over medium heat, pour in oil and saute onion until translucent. Add celery and carrots, cooking until soft, about 10 minutes. Add chicken broth and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Add chicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.


Dumplings
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
About 1 1/2 cups milk, more or less, for the dumplings
Additional milk for the stew

1. To make dumplings, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening by your preferred method (I’ve given up on pastry blenders; hands are my favored tool for this), until mixture is mealy and the particles are small. Add enough cold milk to make a workable dough, up to a cup and a half. Knead the dough and lightly press out 1/2 inch thick with floured hands onto a floured counter. Cut into 1 - inch strips.

3. Gently drop dumplings into broth, allowing each to puff up and rise to the surface. When all dumplings are in, add milk to the stew to achieve proper consistency, about a cup or two. Taste for seasoning. Let simmer about 15 minutes. Feed to your hungry family.

This post is part of #LetsLunch, a global blogging party. Check back here for more links to fabulous food stories.

Apron Strings

Chicken & Dumplings. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

My mom is cleaning out. She says that she's doing my brothers and me a favor by doing a big clean before, heaven forbid, something happens to her and Dad. Mom remembers too well cleaning out her father's basement when he passed away at age 89. That basement could have been a time capsule - suitcases with Aunt Eloise's x-rays, discarded wheelchairs and crutches from various family hospital stays through the years, cancelled checks from 1910. I wish I could say I was making this up, but I was along for the emptying of the basement and I remember it well.

My mom's big clean means that my brother got the telephone lamp - you hang up the receiver to dim the light, something we could do for hours as children - and I got Mom’s collection of aprons. Does anyone outside of a restaurant kitchen wear aprons anymore? I don't always remember to wear them, but my mom always did when preparing dinner. She kept them in the bottom drawer next to the Harvest Gold side-by-side refrigerator, separate from the kitchen towels. That’s right, she had a drawer just for aprons. She made them herself, cotton gingham with rickrack trim and a single pocket. When I helped in the kitchen, I’d pull one out, asking first for the organza hostess aprons that weren’t practical (they were dressy aprons meant for tea and bridge parties), but settling for the gingham and rickrack version with the gathers at the waist. The aprons would circle my waist, fully covering me and the ties would wrap twice or sometimes three times around. Those days are gone.

On some of those apron-wearing days, Mom would let me choose a recipe and we would cook together. She didn’t have a lot of cookbooks, but she did have an old-fashioned recipe folder stuffed with yellowed newspaper clippings. There were more than recipes in the binder - vintage Erma Bombeck columns, clipped because they made Mom laugh out loud; a real estate listing of a log home by a river, complete with a working mill; these were Mom’s life and dreams. And there were recipes, tried and true gems from the newspapers where we lived when my family was young - the Nashville Banner, the Tennesseean, the Spartanburg Herald and Charlotte Observer (we lived in Gaffney, South Carolina, and subscribed to the Gaffney Ledger, and occasionally the Spartanburg paper, but Mom insisted that the Observer had the best food section).

Mom’s chicken and dumplings recipe came from one of these clippings, in a story from the Charlotte paper about a woman who raised a dozen kids in the darkest days of the Depression. She lived on a farm and learned to make great quantities of food for her family. Her recipe produced tender chicken and fluffy dumplings and was finished off with the odd choice of a ½ stick of margarine melted on top. Over the years, Mom and I have each changed the recipe to suit our cooking styles. She makes hers with boneless chicken breasts and canned broth. I prefer meat on the bone and the broth from a gentle poach. Neither of us adds the margarine at the end.

Making broth. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

When I think of my inspiration in the kitchen, I know that it most surely comes from my mom, but I can’t think of a single recipe that is all hers, that I make just the way Mom taught me. My mom is an excellent cook, but I have to say the greatest cooking lesson she ever gave me was to be open-minded and to learn where I can - from other cooks, from books, from TV. I absorb it all and the results are my own.

I make chicken and dumplings about once a month, especially during the winter. When I make this recipe, it makes so much more than my family can eat, so I will pull out a couple of servings and give them to her. She says my chicken and dumplings are better than hers. Can you believe that?

Dumplings ready for the stew-pot. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

My latest variation is in response to some folks who claim a metallic taste in baking powder. I understand this, especially with these dumplings which require three teaspoons baking powder to 3 cups flour - that’s a lot of baking powder. I borrowed a technique from "The Gift of Southern Cooking" by Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis. Miss Lewis made her own baking powder of ¼ cup cream of tartar to 2 tablespoons baking soda. I mixed this up and used it in the dumplings with great success.

Dumplings in broth. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

When I make this recipe, I don't always use a whole chicken - it's quite good made with just chicken breasts or chicken thighs, but if using the latter, I always brown the skin first and remove it, scraping up the tasty bits in the bottom of the pan to enhance the broth. I will also use chicken broth, homemade or canned, instead of the water. But the dumplings are never altered. They are different from most dumplings - they puff like biscuits in the stew. After reheating, they absorb the broth, swelling into yummy pillows.

Chicken & Dumplings. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Chicken and Dumplings

Stew
1 (3 lb.) chicken
1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
Water
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced medium
3 carrots, peeled and diced medium

Dumplings
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
About 1 1/2 cups milk, more or less, for the dumplings
Additional milk for the stew

1. Wash chicken and place in pot with water to cover. Add onion and bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and simmer until meat is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken from pot, let cool and remove meat from bones. Throw away carcass, chop meat. Reserve broth.

2. To make dumplings, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening by your preferred method (I’ve given up on pastry blenders; hands are my favored tool for this), until mixture is mealy and the particles are small. Add enough cold milk to make a workable dough, up to a cup and a half. Knead the dough and lightly press out 1/2 inch thick with floured hands onto a floured counter. Cut into 1 - inch strips.

3. Bring broth to a gentle boil, using a fine mesh skimmer to scoop up the fat and gray crud from the surface. In a separate pan, cook celery, onions and carrots in a small amount of water until soft, about 10 minutes. Add cooked vegetables to broth, then chicken pieces, then gently drop dumplings into pot, allowing each to puff up and rise to the surface. When all dumplings are in, add milk to the stew to achieve proper consistency, about a cup or two. Taste for seasoning. Let simmer about 15 minutes. Feed to your hungry family.

© 2010, Lucy Mercer.

Chicken & Dumplings Just Like Somebody's Mom Used to Make

I like to think that one of my mother's legacies will be a folder stuffed with yellowed newspaper clippings. Vintage Erma Bombeck columns, clipped because they made Mom laugh out loud, a real estate listing with a picture of a log home by a river, complete with a working mill, these are my mom's treasures and my inheritance. And recipes, tried and true gems from the newspapers where we lived when our family was young - the Nashville Banner, the Tennesseean, the Spartanburg Herald and Charlotte Observer (we lived in Gaffney, SC, and subscribed to the Gaffney Ledger, and occasionally the Spartanburg paper, but mom insisted that the Observer had the best food section). About 20 years ago, I found a clipping from the Charlotte paper about an elderly woman who raised a dozen kids in the darkest days of the Depression. She lived on a farm and learned to make great quantities of food for her family. This is her recipe for Chicken and Dumplings and now it has become mine.

I don't always use a whole chicken - it's quite good made with just chicken breasts or chicken thighs, but if using the latter, I always brown the skin first and remove it, scraping up the tasty bits in the bottom of the pan to enhance the broth. I will also use chicken broth, homemade or canned, instead of the water. But the dumplings are never altered. They are different from most dumplings - these have a strong shot of baking powder and puff like biscuits in the stew. After reheating, they absorb the broth, puffing into yummy pillows of chickeny goodness.

Chicken and Dumplings

1 (3 lb) broiler/fryer chicken
water
salt
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
about 1 cup milk, more or less,f or the dumplings
additional milk for the stew
2 good-size carrots, peeled, sliced lengthwise and chopped into 1/4 inch pieces.

1. Wash chicken and place in pot with water to cover. Add other seasonings such as herbs, bay leaf, onions, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and simmer until meat is tender. Remove chicken from pot, let cool and remove meat from bones. Throw away carcass, chop meat.

2. To make dumplings, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture is mealy and the particles are small. Add enough cold milk to make a workable dough. Knead the dough, it will be slightly shaggy like a pie dough. Lightly press out the dough 1/2 inch thick with floured hands onto a floured counter. Cut into 1 - inch strips.

3. Bring broth to a gentle boil, add chicken and carrots and gently drop dumplings into pot. They will rise to the surface. Add milk to the stew to achieve proper consistency. Taste for seasoning. Let simmer about 15 minutes. When friends are under the weather, buy two chickens and make two pots of c&d, one for your family that you love and one for your friends.