Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Pass the Dumplin's, Please........

Boomama and sister sniffed out that reference to homemade chicken and dumplin's that I mentioned being on last nights' menu, and promptly made a request for the recipe. Now I know this recipe looks long and complicated, but I promise, it just looks that way--it's really not difficult to master at all. After you read a few of my personal recipes, you will soon come to realize that I tend to instruct in cooking methodology (is that a non-word?) rather than just writing out a standard recipe. Teaching is one of my spiritual gifts, and I guess it tends to spill over to anything where instructions apply. I can't help myself. Jessica hates it when I morph into lecture mode, lol. :) Anyhow, I digress. Enjoy your dumplin's.


DIANE'S CHICKEN AND DUMPLIN'S

1 whole chicken or parts of your choice
water to cover
salt to taste

6 cups plain flour
2 tbsp. baking powder (yes, tablespoons)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
black pepper to taste
2 1/2 - 3 cups HOT water, OR hot broth from chicken


Place cut-up chicken or parts in a large Dutch oven or pot. Cover with water and salt to taste. Cover and boil until tender. Remove chicken from broth and cool. Remove skin and debone chicken. Add black pepper to taste to broth. Have broth at a medium boil and prepare dumplings. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, shortening and baking powder. Cut shortening into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or with 2 butter knives, or I just usually use my hands to combine well. Add hot water or broth to obtain a medium-stiff dough. On floured surface, knead a little until the dough has a smooth texture. Pinch off about one fourth of the dough. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 - to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into squares with a floured pizza cutter or sharp knife. If possible, remove squares to a large surface lined with waxed paper or foil, in a single layer, until all dough is rolled and cut out. Working quickly, add dumplings to broth, pushing dumplings beneath the boiling broth with a spoon as necessary as you add more dumplings. After all the dumplings have been added, CAREFULLY stir the dumplings occasionally to keep them separated and to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the pot and sticking. Dumplings are done when they cut easily with a fork and are translucent and are no longer doughy in the center. Carefully add the boned and torn chicken to the dumplings. Cook just until heated through. Serve piping hot, with additional black pepper on the side. I like a lot of black pepper on mine - if you can still see the dumplings, there's probably not enough pepper on them, lol. Makes a large Dutch oven of dumplings.


2 comments:

boomama said...

Those directions made perfect sense to me. Really! Hubby is excited...he said that when he read the directions, his mouth started to water.

I'm going to get some chicken right now, and I'll try to whip these up tonight or tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it goes!

Diane@Diane's Place said...

boomama,

I hope these turn out as good for you as they always do for me. When I am in a real hurry, or just feeling lazy, I make drop dumplings, but these are my favorites. Yes, please let me know how they turn out for you. Hope you enjoy them. ;)