My Grandma Peggy is the oldest of nine children, and I think that from a young age she took on a lot of responsibilities; she married young, raised 3 boys and helped run a successful business for over 30 years. But when I think about her, the first thing that comes to mind is her food. It always tasted better, it took time to prepare, to nurture the flavors. Occasionally, I was lucky enough to get to cook with her and I never left without some new tidbit of knowledge. One of my favorite dishes she taught me how to cook was Chicken and Dumplings. Now I don’t know if your grandma is like mine, but Grandma Peggy rarely used recipes. Instead, she cooked from memory and by continuously tasting as she cooked to get the flavors just right. I do that too, but I also want a master plan for reference. So in the spirit of combining my grandma’s wisdom with my own desire for a recipe I have come up with the following. Feel free to modify at will. One easy modification I can suggest: at Stage 3 substitute ¼ lbs. of cooked egg noodles for biscuits and you will have a delicious chicken noodle soup.

 

Ingredients:

For the soup-

  • 6 cups chicken stock
    • You can use prepared stock, make your own, or buy the bouillon cubes, which is what I use.
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 large, or 2 medium sized carrots peeled and chopped
  • 2 celery stalks chopped
  • 1 medium onion chopped
    • I prefer sweeter varieties, but yellow onions are fine.
  • ½ lb of chicken
    • I used boneless, skinless breast tenders, but my grandma always used bone in to enhance the flavors. Once the chicken had cooked she would remove the bone during the shredding process.
  • 1 clove garlic minced or grated with a Microplane
    • Grating is excellent because then you never get little pieces of garlic that overwhelm your taste buds.
  • A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
    • If you don’t have fresh on hand you can use dried parsley flakes, but they have a more intense flavor so only use a ½ tablespoon.
  • Salt and pepper to taste

 

For the biscuits-

You have a few options here. If you are in the US and have easy access to store made biscuits or Bisquick those work well. I prefer to make mine from scratch because it is easy and I can control the ingredients, but it isn’t essential.

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ¼ lbs unsalted very cold butter
    • This is important for keeping the dough workable. If your butter is too warm you’ll end up with mush.
  • ¾ cup half and half

 

Directions:

 

Stage 1: In a large stockpot or Dutch oven melt the butter over medium low heat. While the butter is melting chop up all of your veggies, trying to keep things relatively similar in size. After chopping, add them to the pot and stir everything well to coat them in the butter. I then add a small sprinkle of salt (approximately ½ tsp.) and pepper (approximately ¼ tsp.), and stir again. You will cook this for around 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to make sure things are cooking evenly and not getting browned. You will know you’re ready for Stage 2 when the onions are translucent, and your carrots and celery have softened slightly.

 

Stage 2: Toss in the chopped parsley, place the chicken on top of the veggies and pour on the broth. Then, turn the heat up to medium high and wait for everything to boil. Next, I give everything one more good stir, place the lid on, and turn the heat back to medium low.  Let this simmer for an hour, and then get your spoon out for a taste. If the soup is lacking flavor you can begin tinkering with the recipe to create something that you will love. Maybe add a bit more salt and pepper, or if you find that the soup is lacking depth you can also add onion or garlic powder, or another chicken bouillon cube. Whatever you add, be sure to taste it again to insure you’re happy because at this point you are almost ready to serve. When you’re satisfied, remove the chicken to a cutting board, and either shred it with forks or chop into small pieces. Place chicken back into broth to simmer and begin making your biscuits or boil noodles separately.

 

Stage 3: For the biscuits combine the first four dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Get your butter out of the fridge, and chop it into small pieces (about the same size as the veggies you cut earlier). Add the chopped up butter into the dry ingredients by smashing it with a fork or pastry cutter. You should have something resembling the size of peas that have been coated in flour. Next, add in the half and half and stir until everything is slightly sticky and well incorporated. At this stage you can start using your hands to make small balls (think ping pong ball sized). I usually make 12 balls, the rest can be rolled out one a floured surface, cut and baked at 375 F/191 C for 12-15 minutes until golden brown or freeze them for another time. If you’re making the noodle soup version, simply prepare ¼ lbs egg noodles according to packaged directions and then drain and toss them into the soup.

 

Stage 4: Toss your dumplings, stir gently and then replace the lid. I let the dumplings simmer for another 10-15 minutes to insure that they’ve cooked through before I serve them hot.