when you have five minutes pls give us your chicken and dumplings recipe. looks like it is more than just a thrown together affair. Cheers.
Chicken soup
4-5 whole leg quarters or thighs only (one per person + one extra)
2 large carrots, chopped
2 large celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
8+ Cups stock or bullion
Fresh thyme
2-3 bay leaves
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
2-3 Tbsn butter
Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Dumplings (drop biscuits)
2C flour, leveled
4tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1+ C milk
Large, heavy pot over medium heat, melt butter and add your mire poix. Not looking to brown it, just soften and start them cooking, ~5-7 minutes.
Add minced garlic, thyme and bay leaf, cook another minute or two to take the sharpness out of the garlic.
Pour in 8 cups stock and bring to a fast simmer. Taste your stock and add salt if needed. Continue to taste and season as you go.
Once stock is almost boiling, add whole chicken pieces and bring back to a good simmer. Let chicken legs poach for 20 minutes or so, until cooked through. Add more stock or water to cover the chicken if needed. Adjust salt if needed. Skim off scum and any rendered fat floating to the top.
This is when you start your dumpling batter. Whisk all dry ingredients together, pour in 1 cup cold milk. Stir to combine, it should be a slightly loose, wet mix, not like a biscuit dough. Add a couple ounces more milk if needed. It should be able to be scooped with a spoon, but not run off of it. DO NOT OVER WORK THE BATTER. Mixing too much or trying to knead it will develop the gluten strands and make it chewy, like bread. I prefer a Danish whisk since it will cut through the batter. Set it aside to rest for the remaing 15 or so minutes while the chicken cooks. Resting the batter allows the gluten to relax.
Once the chicken is cooked through, remove to a tray or wire rack and turn heat up to bring soup to a medium boil. Using two spoons, scoop batter with one spoon and scrape it off with the other into boiling soup.
Let them boil for 5-10 minutes while you shred the chicken. Add shredded chicken back to soup which will stop it from boiling, and turn off heat (or put it on very low if you want to hold it for a little bit before serving), and adjust final seasoning if needed.
Fresh cracked pepper and fine chopped parsley at time of serving. Can also add hot sauce, if you like. Can substitute egg noodles for dumpling and have chicken noodle soup. Just add the noodles 5 minutes before serving so they don't over cook to mush.
Enjoy!
