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For the Chicken:
- 3 pounds of chicken pieces (leg
quarters are fine)
- 2 quarts of tap water (8 cups)
- 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon or 6
chicken bouillon cubes
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
For the
Dumplings:
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup milk
- 2-1/2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon each salt & sugar
Chicken and Dumplings is just about the most
delicious creation to ever come out of the
deep South. Pure comfort food, of the
highest order. There are as many ways to
make it as there are cooks who specialize in
it. After much trial and error, I have
discovered the key to making good Chicken
and Dumplings. It must be started the day
before. This give the broth a chance to cool
down so you can lift the fat off of it. The
fat in the broth makes for an indigestible
mess.
So start the day before. Get out a very
large pot, 5 quarts or bigger. Put the
chicken into the pot and pour the water over
it. The chicken should be covered with
water, if it isn't add more, until it is. If
you use chicken leg quarters, use about 4 of
them to make three pounds. Now bring the
chicken to a boil on the back of the stove.
Put a lid on the pot, or a pizza pan, and
reduce the heat to medium-low. It should
still simmer, but sort of slow and easy
like, the same way the sun sets on a hot
summer day in the south, not energetically,
but sort of lazy like instead. Now let the
chicken simmer like that for a full two
hours. Longer if the chicken was partially
frozen when you put it in. You want the meat
to fall off the bone. When the chicken is
good and tender, remove it from the broth.
Try to make sure there are no sneaky bones
which have worked there way to the bottom of
the broth. If you find any, just fish them
out. I do this with a slotted spoon, and a
fork. The chicken is hot, so be very careful
not to burn yourself. Collect your chicken
in a dish or bowl and let it cool down. Let
the broth cool down too. Then put the whole
pot of broth into the fridge overnight.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle,
remove the meat from the bones. Discard the
skin, or give it to a grateful pet lurking
nearby. Toss the bones away. Put the chicken
in a bread bag or quart size canning jar and
keep it in the fridge until tomorrow.
The next day get the big pot out of the
fridge and lift off the cake of fat which
will be solidified on top. Toss it out. Now
bring the broth to a boil on the stove over
high heat, adding the chicken bouillon and
pepper. When the broth is boiling, add the
chicken meat from the fridge. Reduce the
heat so that is barely simmers, in that lazy
southern sunset way. Taste it carefully and
add salt if you think it needs it, probably
it doesn't, but make sure first.
While the broth is starting to cook on the
stove prepare your dumplings. Get out a big
bowl and mix up the oil and milk. Add the
flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix it
up to a stiff batter, like for drop
biscuits. Set it aside until you need it.
When the broth and chicken are simmering
slowly, it is time to drop in the dumplings.
Take small rounded scoops of the dough with
teaspoon and drop them into the simmering
broth, on top of the boneless chicken. Keep
dropping the dough blobs until you have
scraped the bowl clean. Now put the lid, or
a handy pizza pan over the pot and let it
simmer for 20 minutes. Do not peak. Let the
dumplings simmer covered for the full 20
minutes. The thing about dumplings is that
they cook partly from the boiling broth and
partly from the steam. The steam is what
makes the fluffy, and the simmering broth is
what cooks them all the way through. So just
trust me and don't peak while the dumplings
are cooking. When the time is up, serve the
chicken and dumplings right away. The broth
will have miraculously thickened into a rich
gravy, the dumplings will be fluffy and the
chicken will be a savory gift from the
heavens (or the cook). I serve it in cereal
bowl with instant mashed potatoes, green
beans, and brownies. Orange juice is good
with it too, he citrus flavor sort of feels
good on your tongue in between bites of the
chicken.
This recipe serves 8 folks pretty well.
It may seem like a lot of work when you read
this recipe, but it really isn't. The first
day, the hardest part is taking the bones
out of the chicken, and that really only
takes about 15 minutes, after the meat is
cooled down. And the second day, the whole
process takes about 30 minutes from when you
start it to when you eat it. The other charm
of this dish, is that if you have little
else beside chicken leg quarters (often less
than 50¢ a pound), flour and a little milk,
you have a dish fit for royalty. This is one
of the best recipes in my whole collection.
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