Comfort Food – Chicken and Dumplings

Winter just requires comfort food, and one of our favorites is chicken and dumplings. Sometimes I make it to use up left over chicken in the freezer – those bits and pieces saved from a Friday night dinner or slices of turkey from the last big feast, and sometimes I poach chicken breasts to make it all fresh. You could buy a roasted chicken from the deli section of your market, and remove the meat to make it. So lots of options.

As a bonus, this is a quick meal to make – only 30-40 minutes.

Dumplings are made in almost every culture, and chicken and dumplings is iconically American. The soft pillows of dough simmered, almost steamed, on the top of some form of liquid, often broth. My mother often made them for Sunday dinner cooked over peas simmered in milk. I make my dumplings with my own homemade baking mix, so they come together quickly.

My dumplings this way are big puffy pieces of dough, not the rolled soft squares or rectangles often presented in restaurants as chicken and dumplings (though I do make and like them too, it’s really like a different dish). And I usually make chicken n’ dumplings in my favorite cast iron chicken fryer skillet – plenty deep to hold a big batch!

Make it your way

Dumplings can be bland without seasoning. I prefer herbs (parsley, thyme, oregano), but bits of minced onion can be added, or additional seasonings like onion or garlic powder, or small pieces of crumbled bacon.

My last suggestion is not making chicken and dumplings with whole pieces of chicken – you do not want to be picking meat off of bones! You must be able to pick up some dumpling and chicken slathered in gravy in each bite! Some of the flour from the dumplings will thicken the cooking liquid, creating a thick gravy. If you need to cook whole chicken pieces in advance, let it cool and de-bone before making the chicken and dumplings.

Oh, and I usually have to make a double batch of dumplings.