Chicken and Dumplings, Version #1

Sorry for the scarcity of posts here. I've been busy, including being out of town for a couple of days. We had the pleasure of eating one of my mom's home-cooked meals while we were there, and we went out for Chinese buffet one evening. Unfortunately, most of the last week and a half, we've been surviving on convenience meals like hamburger helper (homemade, but still blah) and fish sticks, which I justify because Sparky seems to like them a lot.

For the first time in at least 10 days, I have time today to cook something from scratch. It's cold, snowing a little and Spouse Guy has a bit of a head cold, so I decided some homemade chicken and dumplings would be good.

I make chicken and dumplings three ways. This is the easiest version. I may post the others later, but they are both more time consuming to prepare and I didn't want to make time for them this week.

If you want a more basic dumpling, you can leave out the chicken base, curry powder and chives. Or you can use any dumpling recipe from a basic cookbook, such as Betty Crocker or Good Housekeeping.



Chicken with Dropped Dumplings

3 cups cooked chicken, light or dark meat, cubed or shredded
6 cups chicken broth, homemade or purchased
1 - 2 tablespoons chicken base or bouillon to enhance flavor of broth
1/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup cold water

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Dumplings:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-2 teaspoons chicken base
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried chives or parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 stick COLD butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2-1 cup milk

Combine chicken, chicken broth and chicken base in a Dutch oven (the wider the pan, the more dumplings you can drop into it).

Bring to a boil; combine cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Pour into chicken soup, whisking constantly; cook 2-3 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover until ready for dumplings.

In a food processor*, combine flour, baking powder, chicken base, salt, chives and curry powder. With processor running, add butter, a piece at a time, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Turn processor off.

Add egg and process briefly. Again, with processor running, add milk gradually until a soft, sticky dough forms.

Drop dough by spoonfuls (or use a small ice cream scoop) onto simmering chicken stew. Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove lid and if dumplings look fairly dry on top, continue to cook for 10 minutes uncovered. If they appear to still be wet (especially those around the outside), cover and cook an additional 5 minutes, then remove lid and cook uncovered for 10 more minutes.

Makes 6-8 servings.