Ahnna's Chicken and Dumplings or, Proof That You Can Teach an Old Yankee New Tricks

My spouse remembers her gentle southern Mamaw's cooking with such tender longing sometimes that one day I went looking for a recipe for Chicken and Dumplings. There were all sorts of recipes. Some were complex with vegetables in them. Some were so simple that cut up flour tortillas were substituted for the dumplings. I was told quite firmly that authentic Southern Chicken and Dumplings does not have vegetables in it, and as for the tortillas, just ew.

The first time we made this using a recipe I found on this wonderful blog: http://eatathomecooks.com/2009/07/homemade-chicken-and-dumplings-its-easy-really.html

We rolled the dough out and cut it, just as it shows in the illustration. The recipe is delicious, although for Asha, was still not satisfying her memory of her childhood. Her Mamaw undoubtedly dropped her dough from a spoon rather than rolling it and cutting it, and her broth was thicker and milkier.

This is the version I concocted, with a nod of thanks to the blog above for the dumpling recipe. Asha declared that this recipe is probably more flavorful than her Mamaw's--based on what her Mamaw had on hand to feed 11 children on a daily basis--but our family ate this recipe quite happily. I know Mamaw's smiling on us for passing on her comfort food as best we can.

We like to make this dish a couple days after we've had roasted chicken for dinner. We have homemade stock and leftover chicken for our recipe, but this would work equally well with store bought stock and a cooked, cut-up chicken breast. It makes a surprisingly easy and satisfying dinner.

Ahnna's Chicken and Dumplings
Serves 4-6

For the broth base:
6-8 cups chicken stock
3 cups of cooked chicken cut or shredded into bite size pieces
Salt and pepper to taste

For the dumplings:
2 cups flour
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. baking powder
salt to taste
1cup milk (a little more if you like the drop batter thinner)

For the milk slurry (to thicken):
3-4 tablespoons of flour
About a half a cup milk

To make the dumpling dough:
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry blender.  Stir in the milk, mixing with a fork  until the dough forms a ball.

Bring the broth to a hard simmer in a wide, deep pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Use two teaspoons (one to scoop and one to scrape)  to drop the dumpling dough into the broth. The dumplings should be fairly small, about the size of shooter marbles, but they don't have to be perfect, or even terribly uniform. Stir them as the pot becomes full so they stay seperate.

When you have finished dropping the dumplings into the pot, mix approximately four tablespoons of flour with approximately half a cup of milk in a measuring cup to make a slurry. Mix it well enough to get out most of the lumps. Drop this mixture in to the simmering broth by spoonfuls, stirring the pot between additions. This will keep the gravy smooth. If you've added all your slurry and let it simmer in the pot for a minute or so and it's still not thick enough for your taste, make more slurry with another tablespoon of flour and a little more milk.

Add the cooked chicken, allow everything to simmer together for a few minutes more, and serve.

If you have any leftovers, you might need to thin them with some extra broth as the dumplings soak up the broth overnight, but we are quite happy to eat it home-y and lumpy the second day.