Chicken and Dumplings, the slick kind, is the ultimate comfort food! This Eastern Shore favorite is great for a Sunday family meal with all the fixings! It’s a great way to get the family involved. If they want to eat them, they must help roll them! There is little hesitation when this request is made. These go back years. Grandma Timm would make these slippery dumplins’ at family meals. She once brought them to one of our Thanksgiving meals where she and grandpa were our guests. Ever since that moment, it’s been a mandatory request for our Thanksgiving feast.
You have options when it comes to the chicken. You could buy a large rotisserie chicken and some chicken stock for a quick start. Or you could roast a large roaster chicken ahead of time. Remove the meat and refrigerate it until ready to use. Boil its carcass in a large stock pot with water along with some chopped vegetables, like an onion, carrot and celery, to make your stock. I usually do something like this with turkey parts to use for my Thanksgiving feast. When using chicken in place of turkey, reference this Herbed Turkey Stock. This method takes a few hours, but if you have the time, it’s worth it.
The Dumplings:
For the dumplings, I’ve searched for a recipe to share, since I don’t remember anyone I know who makes this slick version ever having one. It was more like some of this and a little bit of that, mix and roll. There are probably multiple variations within this region, but this recipe allows specifics for someone learning to make them. I came across one at Tide and Thyme blog which I have used as a basis here with some variations to seasoning for personal preferences.
Keeping it simple, whisk together the dry ingredients with your choice of herbs. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, begin to blend as you stream in the milk. Sides should be cleared of all dough, when ready, about a minute or so. Cover bowl with a towel and let it rest for about 10 minutes. It will still appear wet and a bit sticky.
Take out about a 1/4 of the dough and place it on a well-floured mat. Roll using a floured rolling pin until about 1/8″ thick, flipping and rotating frequently. Generally speaking, this is where I source out the rolling responsibilities to any family member who plans to eat these slick wonders, no matter the age. Look at those herbs in those dumplings! Grandma didn’t do that, but the herbs do add a magical flavor, as subtle as it may be, that just comforts the soul!
Now, the old school method is to use a butter knife and slice rectangular sections. Here I thought I’d try out my square biscuit cutter to see how many consistently-sized dumplings I could create. I guess I just had too much free time on my hands this day. I layered them on wax paper until the pot of boiling broth was ready for their submersion. If making them ahead of time, you could store them in a sealed ziploc in the refrigerator until ready to cook. Drop them in one at a time, stirring as you go so they don’t attempt to stick to the bottom of the pot. * Note; The dumpling count using the biscuit cutter was about 58.
Simmer these for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently, but gently. Add additional salt and pepper and maybe a few shakes of poultry seasoning, if you like. The broth can be thickened by using a Buerre Manie paste. This is a French technique which gives the sauce a smooth, silky texture and who’s going to complain about a little buttery taste? Add about half of it and more if you prefer a thicker sauce consistency. Add the paste into the dumplings while on a low boil/simmer for a few minutes, stirring frequently as it thickens gradually. It will dissolve and thicken. If you have a lot of broth, you may need to add the rest of the paste to geet your desired outcome.
Serve these luscious slick dumplings along side chicken with green beans, peas and/or sweet potatoes. YUM!
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
- 3 c all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t baking powder
- 1 t salt
- 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 t crushed rosemary or thyme(or combination)
- 1 1/3 c milk
Chicken and Broth
- 1 chicken, large-rotisserie or roaster, cooked
- 12-16 c chicken broth- store-bought or homemade Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base is highly recommended!
- 2 t Kosher salt
- 1/2 t black pepper
- poultry seasoning to your preference
Buerre Manie(Thickener)
- 2 T softened butter
- 2 T flour
Instructions
Dumpling Dough
- Combine dry ingredients in bowl of stand up mixer.
- Using paddle attachment, turn on mixer medium-low speed as you stream milk into bowl. Mix until dough forms a ball and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl, about a minute.
- Remove dough from paddle. Cover bowl with a towel and allow dough to rest for about 10 minutes.
- Remove about 1/4 of dough at a time and place on a well-floured surface/mat. Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough out, flipping and rotating dough, until reaching an 1/8" thickness.
- Using a butter knife, old-school method, cut into rectangular sections. In this post I used a biscuit cutter to determine the number of consistently-sized dumplings this would make.
Chicken, Broth and Dumplings
- Remove meat from chicken, cover with foil and keep in a warm oven while you cook the dumplings. Save the bones to make a broth for soup, if you prefer.
- If you roasted your chicken, strain off the remnants from the pan juices into a large pot that you will use to cook your dumplings. Add in the additional broth and season to your liking, (salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, etc)
- Once your broth is prepped, you could start dropping them into it once it begins a rolling boil. Otherwise, lay cut dumplings on waxed paper until ready to use. Continue to roll out the rest of the dough, reusing any scraps you may have.
- Once all dumplings have been added to the pot, simmer them stirring frequently to avoid any sticking. Here, you can further adjust the seasonings to your personal liking. As stated above, I used about 2 t. of salt, some more pepper and a few shakes of poultry seasoning. To thicken the sauce follow the directions below for the beurre manie. It's a French technique which really silkens up the sauce beautifully, adding a buttery flavor as well!
Buerre Manie (Sauce Thickener)
- Blend/mash softened butter and flour together to make a smooth paste.
- Add it to the pot with dumplings while on low boil, stirring frequently until sauce thickens. You may want to start with half of the thickener and adjust by adding more depending on the consistency of the sauce you prefer.
- Enjoy!
