Chicken and Dumplings

Well, school has been in session for about a month now which means, of course, that all those little germs that your kids are bringing back from school are now making their way into your body and chances are you're feeling pretty crummy right about now.  And even if you don't have any kids (like me) you're still getting exposed to all those lovely little germies from all your coworkers who do have kids.  Basically, if you don't have "the crud" right now, you'll probably be getting it.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Cole and I are both not feeling great this weekend, so I decided some comfort food was in order.  If you've never had chicken and dumplings, the dumplings are basically poached biscuits in chicken noodle soup (minus the noddles).  I don't really understand how they end up getting cooked, but they do and that's all I really care about.  My mom used to make this for us in the winter growing up.  We lived in Idaho so we had a real winter, and there was nothing better than sitting down at the table with a nice steaming bowl of chicken and dumplings after playing outside in the snow all day.  She would make extra dumplings so I could take them to school for lunch the next day in a big thermos.  Let me tell you, all my friends with pb&j or bologna sandwiches were totally jealous of my lunches on chicken and dumplings days.  This recipe is just like my momma made it, and it was just as delicious as I remembered it.

Chicken and Dumplings

What you need:

4 chicken thighs (or a whole chicken, cut up; or whatever kind of chicken you prefer.  Bone in meat is preferable)

4 cups chicken stock

1-2 cups water

Celery (about 2 cups chopped)

5 medium/large carrots, chopped

1 white onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, chopped

5 tsp thyme

2 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup bisquick

1/3 cup milk

What you do:

Chop up all your vegetables and put them in a large pot with a little bit of olive oil.  Cook the vegetables over medium high heat until you can smell the garlic and the vegetables have softened up a bit.  Meanwhile, season the chicken with 2 tsp thyme (approx.), garlic powder and salt and pepper.   

Put the chicken on top of the vegetables in the pot.  Add your chicken stock and water until the chicken is covered.  You may need to add extra water.  Add the remaining 3 tsp of thyme and cover the pot. 

Let the chicken simmer with the vegetables for as long as you want (at least 30 minutes).  The longer everything simmers together the better, in my opinion.  Keep an eye on it though, you may need to add some more water periodically if it looks like it's getting to low.  

When you're about ready to eat you'll want to make your dumplings.  Mix together 1 cup bisquick and 1/3 cup milk.  Roll the dough into balls roughly the size of a golf ball and drop them into the pot.  Cook them for 10 minutes with the lid on, then 10 minutes with the lid of.  Serve and enjoy.  

I like to serve this in a bowl with a lot of broth, but you can easily pull out the chicken and some of the vegetables and use the broth more as a sauce over the dumplings.  Either way, you'll probably have a lot of broth and vegetables left over.  Don't throw it away!  Keep it and make chicken noodle soup!  You can even freeze it if you're not going to use it right away and pull it out later.  

 Cole described this both as "Thanksgiving in a bowl" and one of the all time greatest things I've ever made him.  So I think it was a success.