Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chicken n' Dumplins



This is one of my favorite meals. I could eat this every day for a year and I think I would still love it. It is also one of the few recipes I brought into my marriage that my husband loves. I count that as a personal win. That being said it is an all day fairly intensive process, but it does leave your house smelling FANTASTIC!

1 chicken (I usually buy a 4.5 - 5lb bird)
1 bunch of celery
6 carrots (ish)
2 onions (I use white)
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp kosher salt

2 cups gluten free Bisquick
2/3 cup milk or soy milk (This is what the original "Bisquick Standard Dumplings" recipe says, I always add more milk. Somewhere around 1c until I have a sticky dough, not a short dough. I like my dumplings to be less dense.)
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

In the morning take all the guts out of the cavity of your chicken (and give the dog an amazing treat, trust me) then place the bird in the crock pot. Cover it with water. Add the salt and bay leaves. Cut an onion into quarters and add it to the water. Peel three carrots, cut them in half, add them too. Cut off the base of the celery stalk and pull out all the skinny little puny stalks and toss them in. Then cut of the leafy tops and toss those in too. Cook it all on low for 8 - 10 hours.

After it's cooked pull out the bird and the veggies. Strain the yummy broth into a large pot and put over medium heat. Peel and chop the remaining carrots, chop the remaining celery, peel and chop the remaining onion. Dump all of the veggies in the pot.

At this point you have to get all the meat off of the chicken. I generally have a 2 bowl system. I put the whole bird in one bowl, pull out all the undesirable bits (bones, gristle, wilted veggies, skin..), then shred up all the meat with a couple of forks. Now if you haven't done this before BE CAREFUL, it is easy to miss the skinny little rib bones.

Pour your shredded chicken into the pot.

Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the bisquick, milk, egg, and butter together until it makes a biscuit like dough. (Sometimes I double the dumpling recipe because I REALLY like dumplings. If your pot is large enough it still works quite well)

After the 10 minutes is up use a large spoon to scoop dollops of dough into the soup. I usually end up with about 6 or 7. This last time I also made mini dumplings for my daughter. Put the batter in a zipper bag, cut off a corner, and pipe small dollops into the broth. Cook uncovered over low heat for 10 minutes, cover and cook another 10 minutes on low.

Let cool (or just eat loudly and slurp in a bunch of air with the soup) and enjoy!

Happy eating!
Tori 

1 comment:

  1. According to Dr. Oz, the puny little pieces inside the celery stalk are the ones with the most nutrients.

    ReplyDelete