If you're looking for comfort food, you can't do much better than chicken and dumplings. If you haven't tried this stick to your ribs meal, it's basically a version of chicken noodle soup, except the soup is closer to a stew, and the noodles are puffy pillows made from traditional pantry ingredients. You can make dumplings with or without eggs, but the egg version tends to be richer and really doesn't take any more work. The eggs and oil can be omitted for a dumpling lower in calories and cholesterol, yet still offering the traditional taste and texture. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Place a whole cut up fryer chicken in a Dutch oven. Add diced carrot, onion, 1/4 cup butter and 2 bay leaves. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 1 hour.
2. Remove the chicken, vegetables and bay leaves from the pot with a slotted spoon. Leave the broth in the pot. Discard the vegetables and bay leaf. Allow the chicken to cool, then cut the meat off the bones and into bite-sized pieces.
3. Return the chicken to the pot, season with salt and pepper and simmer uncovered on low while you make the dumplings.
4. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make an indent in the flour and crack the two eggs into it.
5. Add the oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, gradually adding the cold water until the eggs are completely mixed in and a firm dough forms.
6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the rolled dough into sections that are about 2 inches by 3 inches. These will become the dumplings.
7. Bring the chicken and broth to a boil. Drop the cut pieces of dough into the broth. Allow the dumplings to boil in the uncovered pot for about 20 minutes, until they puff up. The dumplings will absorb the broth and thicken it to a gravy consistency.
Tags: dough into, make dumplings, simmer uncovered