Chicken & Dumplings - Canola OilExtra

Method

• For chicken and broth:
• Rinse chicken breasts, lay on a plate and season both tops and bottoms with Tonys Seasoning.
• In a stock pot or dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat.
• Place chicken in pot and brown.
• (Turn your vent on, or else the spices will set everyone coughing!)
• Once well browned, remove breasts from pot and set aside.
• Add diced onion, celery, garlic and optional bell pepper to pot and saute till onions are soft and translucent.
• Add water to fill your pot halfway, then put chicken breasts back into the pot.
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer.
• Add 3 cups of cut up green onion tops and cover.
• (Go make your dumpling dough now!)
• Cook until chicken is VERY tender and you can break each breast apart with a fork.
• Break it up well.
• Add more water if needed and enough Kitchen Bouquet to darken the broth nicely.
• Season to taste with Tonys or kosher salt/fresh ground pepper.
• Cover and lower heat to barely a simmer.
• While the chicken and broth are simmering, make the dumplings.
• Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.
• Cut in the butter/Crisco until coarse crumbs form.
• Add remaining cup of cut up green union tops and mix in until well distributed.
• Add cold water all at once, stirring until dough is formed into a ball.
• (If the chicken and broth are not at the final simmer at this point, put dough in a bowl, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and stick in the refrigerator until ready to use.)
• When ready to form the dumplings, put ball of dough on a floured surface and pat down or flatten it a bit.
• Sprinkle a bit of flour on top and, using a rolling pin, begin rolling it out as thin as you can get it.
• Continue sprinkling flour on top of pastry to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin.
• This extra flour will help thicken your broth up nicely.
• When pastry is nice and thin, take a dinner or butter knife and cut it into medium-sized rectangles/squares.
• Remove stock pot lid and adjust the heat (or down as the case may be) so that steam is rising from the broth but it isnt boiling.
• Start slowly dropping your dumplings in, scattering them well.
• Dumplings will initially sink and then float when they are done.
• From this point on, DO NOT STIR.
• Use a fork to lightly shake through the contents of the pot and continue to add dumplings.
• When all dumplings have been dropped in, turn the heat to low, and cover again if not serving immediately.
• Serve with candied sweet potatoes (recipe to follow soon) and pistolettes.
• Green beans with almonds is a nice addition as well to round out this country meal.
• *Note: If you dont want to make your own dumplings, you can find flat dumpling strips in your grocers freezer, usually where the frozen breads, rolls, and biscuits are.
• The brand I prefer and have used in a pinch is Mary Bs and this recipe usually calls for at least two of the regular packs or one of the bulk/family size packs.