Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Chicken and Dumplings





The top one is mine- it's looking a little dry.  The bottom one is from the cook book.  Mine when I ate it looked more like the bottom, as far as sauce.  The top was Andrews after it had sat for a little bit and soaked up sauce.  So hopefully, when he reheats his tonight, it will get saucy again!

Here is the adaptation I made to the CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS recipe found in my Complete America's Test Kitchen Cook Book (the white one).  The book involves cooking chicken thighs and such in the stew and letting it simmer for an hour, shredding etc.  I had some left over chicken breasts I had cooked earlier in the week, so I adapted the recipe to do it faster and easier!

Stew
1 1/2 cooked and shredded chicken breasts
2 Tablespoons butter
2 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 in thick
1 celery rib, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 onion, minced
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 cup "dry sherry" * I did broth with a little bit of white vinegar in it.  Maybe 1/2-1 tsp, I didn't measure
2 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/8 cup whole milk (it needs to be whole)
1/2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 c green peas frozen
1 1/2 Tablespoon parsley

Dumplings
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk (again needs to be whole, according to the test kitchen divas)
1 1/2 T butter

1.  Melt butter in Dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add carrots, celery, onion and 1/8 tsp salt and cook til softened, about 7 min.  Stir in the flour.  Whisk in the "sherry", scraping up any brown bits.  Stirin the broth, milk, thyme and bay leaf.  Add chicken.  Simmer til warmed through and slightly thickens and simmers.
2.  FOR THE DUMPLINGS: Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Microwave the milk and butter in bowl until just warm, about 1 min.  Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth. (only make this when you're ready to cook the dumplings- don't do ahead of time)
3. While stew is still at a simmer, stir in the peas and parsley.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Drop golf-ball sized dumplings over the top of the stew about 1/4 in apart (should have about 9 dumplings).  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until the dumplings have doubled in size. 15-18 minutes.  Serve!

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