bringing the soup to a boil before simmering

finished soup, garnished with cilantro

This is my own recipe, and the description below is partially a re-post from open901. Today, I made one pot of spicy chicken n’ dumplings and used leeks instead of onion. I also used a pre-cut chicken for the first time. It was a bit more expensive, but at least I did not have to waste the giblets. Otherwise, the recipe is the same as the spicy version that Myha and I made, below.

Original recipe:

We made two pots of Chicken ‘n Dumplings – one regular and one spicy. For each pot, we used:

2-1/2 to 3 lb. Chicken (whole) Get a free-range chicken if you can.

4 C Water

4 C Chicken broth – this is a key, so spend the extra $$ on the good stuff if you can. The free-range broth that comes in the carton is best. Organic or regular, but not the low sodium.

1-2 Carrot, roughly chopped

1-2 Medium onion, cut into quarters

3 smallish red potato, cut into quarters (I often omit)

1-2 Stalk of celery, roughly chopped

1/2 lb Crimini mushrooms, chopped

Head of italian parsley (for regular) or a bunch of cilantro (for spicy)

1/2 t Salt

1/4 t Freshly ground pepper

Menudo Mix

2 bay leaf

Dumplings:

2 C All-purpose flour

1/2 t Baking soda

1/2 t Salt

1 – 2 C Buttermilk

kitchen necessity

PREPARATION:
Put the stuff in the pot.
We thawed the chicken and pulled out the stuff inside and rubbed the chicken in and out with lemon. While the chicken thawed, we chopped up the vegetables.

death defying accuracy

We put it in a big pot with salt, pepper, carrot, onion, celery and (for the plain only) half of the parsley. We also added the potato and half of the mushrooms, although you might want to omit these here if you don’t have time to pick them out later. Then we added the chicken broth and water.

plain

For the spicy pot, we also added about 1/2 cup of Menudo Mix.

spicy

cook it
The soup was brought to a boil, then covered and simmered over low heat for 60 to 70 minutes, or until tender and chicken is done. We turned the chicken over about 20 minutes into cooking.

Then we went back to watching Chicken Run – the irony!

at least we weren’t making chicken pie

After an hour or so, we checked to see that it was done by piercing the meat with a knife – the liquid that came out was clear and not rosy, so it was good to go. It’s a good idea not to overcook the chicken, because it will cook a bit more in the soup later.

strain it and de-bone the chicken
Then we took the chicken out and let it to cool enough to handle (well, almost). While we were waiting, we strained the broth into another big pot. From the vegetables in the strainer, we picked out some of the carrots and all of the potato and mushrooms and added these back to the strained broth. Then we put the broth back on the heat to bring it to a low boil for the dumplings. While it heated, we cut and picked all the meat off of the chicken, and set that aside. I like to leave the meat in big chunks whenever possible. If you find a little bit of meat that you aren’t sure is done enough, put it into the broth to cook some more later. Some people do this with all of the chicken meat, but overcooked chicken is rubbery – so only if you have to.

dumplings (easy!)
To make the dumplings, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, mix well and mash out any lumps. I sift the flour before measuring it. Then add buttermilk. The idea is to add enough buttermilk to get the dough moist. You don’t have to do this all at once. It works better to wet the center and get that about right – then you can adjust with either more buttermilk or more dry ingredients from the edges of the bowl. I stir it with a fork a bit – but not that much. The dumplings will be hard and doughy if the dough is stirred or mashed up too much. So, get the dough just a little bit moist.

Now grab some of the moistened dough and pull off a little chunk – the size of the tip of your thumb? (When it’s in the broth, the dumpling will expand and big dumplings are often uncooked or thick and doughy in the center, so little is better.) Knead and roll the little chunk just enough to get it roughly circular and so that there aren’t big areas of unmoist flour. Then toss it into the broth. (The broth should be at a low boil.) Your fingers will be covered with dough and flour, but if the dumpling really sticks to your finger, the dough is too wet.

Repeat with the rest of the dough. You can add more buttermilk.

After you’ve added the dumplings, you can add the rest of the mushrooms and parsley /cilantro. Adjust the seasonings. Cook the dumplings for about 10-15 minutes, or until you feel like they’re ready. (Fish one out, cut it in half or into quarters and taste it – it should be cooked in the center and reasonably firm throughout.) Add the chicken meat back so that it’s all hot. Garnish the spicy with fresh chopped cilantro. Unless you hate cilantro. (Weirdo.)

You will need help eating all this. Probably.

yum