Cooking With Kat: Chicken and Dumplings with Mom

This is the PERFECT time of year for chicken and dumplings! I had never made them before, so my wonderful mom came over and we made them together! yay!!!!

So first things first. Here's the recipe:

Chicken:
1 whole chicken
1 chopped onion
1 large stalk celery chopped fine
2 Tbs chicken granules (boullion)
1 c. milk
1 Tbs butter
salt and pepper

Dumplings:
2 c. flour
1 ts salt
1 c. milk
3 heaping tsp BP
1/4 cup crisco

So here's whatcha do!

First of all, here's my beautiful mom chopping up the onions!

Chop up the onion and celery finely and then put in a large stockpot with water in it.

Then you drop in the big ole chicken!

Then you boil the chicken in the celery and onion until cooked, and until it easily falls apart. Here's a pic so you can know what that means. Because, "fall apart"? yeah it can be confusing. Really, I guess it's until the meat easily falls off the bone! Here my mom is lifting out portions because it is falling apart:

Then you tear up the chicken into pieces and REMOVE the bone - but really, the chicken is obviously REALLY hot, and we don't want any burns out there, so WAIT until the chicken is cooled to tear it into pieces. It can be whatever size you like, but small enough for someone to eat!

So then once the chicken is cooler and torn, you put it back in the pot  - but not necessarily ALL of it. I mean, a whole chicken is a lot. So maybe a couple cups, or more, depending on how meaty you want your chicken and dumplings! Then you put the butter, milk, and boullion and salt and pepper. I don't know how much, but you kind of need a lot. ha. (Remember, folks, this is NOT baking!) So just taste it already! (-:

So, while made was cooking up the soup, I started on the dumplings. They are made pretty much like biscuits. First, combine your dry ingredients, then put in your crisco and milk and mix well.

Then comes the fun part, use a spoon and get a dumpling size amount, and put the dumplings in the boiling broth until they are all in there...

And here's the pot, full of dumplings! Once you get them in there, you reduce the heat and cover, cooking them for 15 minutes. Turn them halfway through the cooking time to make sure they all get done. I actually didn't do that part because mine cooked with lid was on, but I have waterless cookware.... So just watch it.

So then, once the dumplings are done, it's ready to be eaten. YUM!!! but first, you have to break the wishbone!!!

Also, you can make more dumplings, as you might need more than that... Here's mom and her bowl!

And, unfortunately, I TOTALLY dropped the ball on the taste tester!!! Sorry guys... but you can take my word... it's YUMMY! (-:

But don't you worry, I already have my pics ready for my next segment... anyone like APPLE PIE???!!! And I have a tester for that.

Thanks, Mom!!! (-:

Happy Monday!

Enjoy this BEAUTIFUL fall!

~Kathryn