Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is one of my absolute favorite meals. Especially because it's like chicken pot pie without the pie crust (and if you know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of pie crust unless it's made from cookies or graham crackers). Plus it's super easy to make, warms you up on cold days, and you almost always have all the ingredients in your pantry.

I had a rotisserie chicken I needed to get rid of and I'd never actually made it myself before, but I thought it tasted pretty delicious, so I'd call it a success.

It should be noted that I used a combination of a recipe found online (via Feast Ur Eyes) and my knowledge of watching my father make this on occasion to write up this exact recipe. Coincidentally, I didn't have some of the ingredients so I improvised. Here are my changes:

• no celery or peas
• 4 sage leaves instead of bay leaves
• shredded rotisserie chicken instead of making my own
• one carrot because it was absolutely enormous

but if you do have the correct ingredients, either way is fine, obviously (also, if you don't have heavy cream, you can just use milk, whipping cream, light cream, etc). I don't have any pans with lids, nor do I own a dutch oven, so I used the deepest pan we had and used my cutting board as a lid, which worked fine, except I should have added more broth. The dumplings sucked so much of the broth up while cooking that there wasn't very much left and a lot of chicken ended up stuck to the bottom of the pan.

The dumplings turned out HUGE, but that's what I get for eyeballing the size and trying to fit all of them into my tiny, too shallow pan.

Chicken & Dumplings

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• salt
• pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cups chicken broth (1 cup reserved)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded 

For the dumplings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley (can be substituted with rosemary, thyme, basil, etc)

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large dutch oven (or a deep pan with a lid) over medium heat. Sauté onion until softened, about 2 minutes. Add carrots, celery, salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves. Sauté until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups chicken broth, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add in most of the chicken and the peas. In a separate bowl, heat 1 cup chicken stock and slowly whisk in 1/4 cup flour (use a sieve to pour mixture into the soup if it is lumpy). Bring soup up to a boil and reduce to simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes, or until broth is thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir flour, baking powder, parsley, and salt in large bowl. Stir in cream until incorporated (dough will be very thick).

Discard bay leaves and return stew to rapid simmer. Add reserved chicken to stew along with any accumulated juices. Using 2 large soup spoons, a small ice cream scoop, or your hands, drop golf ball-sized dumplings onto stew about 1/4 inch apart (you should have 16 to 18 dumplings). Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until dumplings have doubled in size (or until a toothpick inserted into them comes out clean), 15 to 18 minutes. Serve.

I need to learn how to be creative when naming recipes I come up with.

Is there like, a class for that or something? Some things already have names, even though you can make them differently and customize them (like steak and cheese or certain kinds of cookies), but there are some dishes that need a new name. Dishes that are created by just throwing a bunch of stuff together, and having it come out great, thus deserving a great name. Something I am terrible at. Anyway, this dinner came out of me having a couple chicken breasts in the fridge and not knowing what to do with them. Also, stale bread. I hate when it gets so stale that it's practically inedible and you either have to find a use for it or throw it out.

Semi Chicken Parmesan (that's a temporary name, because frankly, it's awful)

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• stale bread, about 4 slices, depending on the type of bread (or pre-made breadcrumbs)
• salt
• pepper
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• about 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• pasta of your choice (I used penne)
• tomato sauce
• roughly 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• fresh basil (optional; to garnish)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Take your stale bread and smash it up into crumbs (I put the bread in a ziploc bag and then repeatedly bashed it with a rolling pin until it resembled crumbs of a reasonable size). Place crumbs in bowl. Add flour to bowl, then add about 3/4 of the basil and oregano. Mix until combined. Take your eggs and scramble them up with a fork in another bowl to make an eggwash. Salt and pepper your chicken breasts, then dip them in the eggwash, followed by the breadcrumb mixture and transfer to a greased skillet. Add the rest of the dried spices to the chicken while searing. Cook just enough so that the outside of the chicken is browned and none of it is pink. Transfer chicken to a sheet pan and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella on top.

Place in oven for about 20-25 minutes.

While the chicken is finishing off in the oven, bring some water to a boil. Follow the instructions on your pasta, then drain and coat in about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Plate your pasta, adding as much sauce as you would like. When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit for about five minutes so it retains its juices. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and stir into the plated pasta. Cover with more mozzarella cheese, then place back in the oven for about 5-8 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Remove plates from oven (remember that they're hot and don't burn yourself accidentally like I did) and garnish with fresh basil.

Buttermilk Cornbread

I had been wanting to make cornbread for a while, and I decided to make something other than plain cornbread to surprise him. Besides, I was always taught the more bacon grease and/or butter you add to something, the better it tastes. Even if it’s not that good for you, but the tastiest foods don’t tend to be.

Buttermilk Cornbread

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese (optional)
• about 6 strips bacon, pan fried and chopped (optional)
• about 1/4 cup bacon drippings (optional)
• 1/4 cup chives (optional)
• * You can also feel free to add jalapeno, onion, and other toppings of your choice. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Foil and grease an 8 inch square pan. Melt butter (I put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds) and pour into mixing bowl. Stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Add in the toppings of your choice during this period of time (cheese, bacon, chives, bacon drippings - the drippings in my opinion add a really good flavor to the corn bread). Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

(recipe adapted from Michelle's Story)