chicken and dumplings

Chicken and dumplings

Quicker and better than
Mother used to make

 

 

My mother was a professional cook and very good at her trade. At home she occasionally made chicken and dumplings. As I remember them, the dumplings were fluffy balls of dough. Out of high school, I ran off to the military and that was the end of mother’s dumplings.

 

When I got to the South, I heard a lot of talk about squirrel and dumplings. I’m sure the squirrel was good, but the dumplings weren’t the same as mother’s. They didn’t seem like dumplings at all, but were rather wide, thick noodles.

 

I had pretty much forgotten about dumplings until I got interested in Dutch oven cooking, which I incorporated with my camping. While surfing the internet for good Dutch over recipes, I came across one for chicken and dumplings. I tried it and the dumplings were just like mother used to make. I have since modified the recipe, which I still make in a Dutch oven, though I cook it in the kitchen oven instead of over charcoal briquettes. I don’t know how they would come out using a regular pot. I think there is something about the heavy cast iron and heavy lid that makes then come out like they do. Here’s the recipe as I do it:

 

You will need
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 large already roasted chicken breast from your local grocery store
1 cup of self-rising flour
1 heaping table spoon of mayonnaise
1 can of mixed vegetables or an equivalent amount of
  frozen vegetables (the frozen are better)

 

1) Place soup in the Dutch oven.
2) Add two soup cans of water and stir up.
3) Place in the oven at 350 degrees or over enough
   coals to bring it up to temp. If using coals, also
   put some on the lid. Bring it to a boil.

 

4) Debone the chicken and cut into pieces.
5) Mix the mayo and flour.
6) Add enough milk to form a dough.
7) Put the chicken and vegies in the boiling water.
8) Drop large spoons of dough into the boiling water. It    should make five or six dumplings.
9) Cook for 25 minutes or so at 350 degrees;
after 15 or twenty minutes, turn the dumplings
over in the soup.

 

There you have it; a simple, quick recipe for good old fashioned chicken and dumplings just like mother used to make, that is a Washington State mother.