How to Make Chicken and Dumplings
Practically all cultures have their own version of a dumpling. From Italian gnocchi to Asian potstickers to Indian samosas, dumplings are a universal comfort food, and many were invented as a way of stretching dishes to feed just a few more people or use up bits of leftovers. It's fair to say that chicken and dumplings is the American "dumpling" of choice. The dish is most commonly associated with Southern cooking, though history indicates the recipe may have actually originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch.There's a intense controversy over which type of dumpling -- fluffy drop dumplings or slippery flat noodle-like dumplings -- are the true sultans of the stew bowl. Each kind has their own virtues, and your chicken and dumplings will likely be delicious no matter which you choose. We remain neutral on the dumpling controversy; this recipe just so happens to use drop dumplings.
Transcript
Hey, everyone, Judith here with Recipe.com. Today, I'm gonna be
showing you how to make Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings, a
good old popular, satisfying, comforting souther dish. What we're gonna
need for this is 1-3/4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken
thighs, trimmed and cut into 1-1/2-inch pieces. We have here
two-thirds of a cup of all-purpose flour,
two carrots which we've diced, one large onion which we've
diced, two stalks of celery which we've diced, one tablespoon
of poultry seasoning, half a teaspoon of salt, half a
teaspoon of black pepper, one cup of water, and 1-1/2
cups of frozen peas which we've thawed. Two cans of
reduced sodium chicken broth which is about 28 ounces all
together, then we have one cup of whole-wheat pastry flour,
half a cup of all-purpose flour, one teaspoon of poultry
seasoning, half a teaspoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon
of salt, and three-quarters of a cup of non-fat buttermilk.
So, we have here a large pot. If you have
a dutch oven, that's great. We're gonna put it on
a medium heat and we're just gonna toss in our
chicken thighs and our flour all together
so we just wanna get those nice and covered with
the flour. So, get your hands in there, a little
lightly. So, in the pan, we wanna put one tablespoon
of our two tablespoons of canola oil in there. We're
gonna save that other tablespoon for later, and once that's
heated up, we're gonna add in our chicken. So, once
our chicken is in our pot nicely floured, we are
gonna brown that now for about 3 to 5 minutes.
Well, it's been about 3 or 4 minutes and our
chicken are nice and lightly brown now, so we're just
gonna transfer them to a plate. Like so. There we
go. And we'll just set those aside for the moment.
Now, we're gonna put it to a medium heat
and we're gonna put our remaining one tablespoon of oil
into the pan and now we're gonna get our veggies
in there and we want them to get them nice
and soft, so in go our carrots, our celery and
onion. Let's put in our poultry season there, give it
a nice kick, and our salt and pepper, and we
wanna cook that covered for about 5 to 7 minutes,
until our vegetables get nice and soft. Make sure to
stir occasionally. So, as our stew is simmering, we are
gonna get on with our dumplings. We'll make our dumpling
mix so let's put in our whole wheat flour. Our
all-purpose flour goes in there, too. Our poultry seasoning. The
baking powder, the salt, and last but not least, of
course, our buttermilk can go in there, too,
and we're just gonna stir all that together and those
are gonna be some great dumplings which we're gonna put
in the pot after. So, get that all mixed in
together until we get it to a nice consistency as
we want. Now, if you don't have buttermilk, you can
make your own sour milk which is basically mixing one
cup of milk with one tablespoon of lemon juice and
vinegar, and that will give the same kind of effect.
All right. Okay, so we'll work on that and putting
them into little balls a little bit later. So, now
that our vegetables are nice and soft...we'll give them a
little stir. We're gonna put in that remaining flour which
we used for the chicken, so in that goes on
top. And then we'll put in our liquids,
so, our chicken broth goes in there. As well as
our water...and our peas. So, let's just give that a
good stir. So we're gonna bring our pot to a
simmer and stir occasionally. Well, we brought our chicken stew
to a simmer and now it's time to put in
our dumplings.
So, get your hands dirty here and we wanna take
about one tablespoon of our dough mixture and just put
it into-- on top of our chicken stew mixture like
so, so we'll probably be able to get possibly about
18 little balls, little dumplings, out of this, and they
will all go on top, then we wanna leave our
chicken stew with our dumplings on the stove for about
15 minutes with the cover on until our dumplings get
nice and expanded,
they puff out, and our chicken is cooked all the
way through, and our vegetables are nice and tender. Well,
it's been 15 minutes. Our chicken and dumplings have been
simmering away and they are done. So, our dumplings have
puffed out beautifully and I am just gonna serve that
up, getting all our vegetables, a bit of chicken in
there, get a nice, big bowl and that goes in
there with all that lovely sauce and that just looks
fantastic.
Comforting, satisfying, it's a really great meal for all the
family. There you go, everyone. That's how you make your
Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings.
What You'll Need
- 1 3/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
- 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup nonfat buttermilk, (see Tip)
Step By Step
1
Toss chicken with 2/3 cup all-purpose flour in a medium bowl until coated. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Reserving the remaining flour, add the chicken to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
2
Reduce heat to medium and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pot. Stir in carrots, celery, onion, 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the reserved flour over the vegetables; stir to coat. Stir in broth, water, peas and the reserved chicken. Bring to a simmer, stirring often.
3
To prepare dumplings: Meanwhile, stir whole-wheat flour, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Stir in buttermilk.
4
Drop the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time, over the simmering chicken stew, making about 18 dumplings. Adjust heat to maintain a gentle simmer, cover and cook undisturbed until the dumplings are puffed, the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.
5
Tip: No buttermilk? You can use buttermilk powder prepared according to package directions. Or make "sour milk": mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk.
When you know how to make chicken and dumplings, you'll never be at a loss for what to make when the mood strikes for old-fashioned comfort food.
More Recipes
A delicious weeknight meal, try this homey recipe that uses fresh mushrooms, chicken, olives and sage.
Our revision of creamy chicken and dumplings uses whole-wheat flour for the dumplings and adds lots of vegetables to the filling. The delicious, satisfying results are packed with beneficial nutrients and dietary fiber, and because we don't use canned soup for the sauce, sodium levels are drastically reduced. To go even lighter, try the recipe with boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
