CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

                  

I didn’t grow up eating chicken and dumplings because my Mother didn’t make them.  This is because she really doesn’t like them.  I totally understand since I rarely make meatloaf---because I really don’t like it.  As selfish as it sounds, I generally make meals for my family that I enjoy.  That’s why if you don’t know what to make for dinner, ask yourself what you are hungry for—and then enjoy making that for your family.   Your kids need to see you having fun fixing meals so that they will have a positive attitude about cooking for their future families. I know that sometimes you just can’t think of anything to cook, but family members get really tired of us asking them what they want for dinner.   Keep the lines of communication open and when it is not time for a meal, ask individual members of the family what their favorite foods are (things they have had at home or at a restaurant or even in a friend’s home) .  This will give you ideas for those days when you don’t have a clue what to serve.  Planning your weekly menu in advance is one of the best stress relievers you can implement to help you as the primary cook in your family group.  Of course be flexible—allow for changes (when you find things that are on sale at the grocery), designate certain dinners as leftover nights (maybe supplemented with a new vegetable or serve the leftover in a different form) and have canned soup and grilled cheese sandwiches or breakfast  for dinner now and then.  The main thing to remember is that one of the greatest gifts you can give your family is time---and I think that providing nutritious and delicious  food is a great way to cause the whole family to slow down and spend time together.  Hopefully the recipes you will find on my blog will provide you with ideas you can use as you plan your family meals.

Ingredients:

6-8 chicken breasts, boiled with onion, celery and salt (or chicken pieces of your choice). 

3 quarts (12 cups) of chicken broth (strained homemade or from cartons)

2 T. butter

2 T. olive oil

2 cups diced sweet onion

2 cups coarsely diced celery

1 cup coarsely diced or shredded carrots

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt, pepper, chicken bouillon soup granules to taste

Instructions:

*Boil chicken ahead of time.  Cool and chop into bite size chunks.

*Saute onion, celery and carrots in butter and olive oil.  Don’t let these get brown, only soft and translucent.

*Bring the chicken broth to a  boil in a large pot and then reduce to a rolling simmer.  Add the onion, celery and carrots.  Add the cooked  and chopped chicken.  Add the parsley.  Heat through.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Occasionally for a more intense flavor, I will add a sprinkle or two of chicken bouillon soup granules.  This adds more salt though, so if you decide to use the granules-add them first, taste and then add salt if necessary.

Dumplings:

1 cup flour

2 t. baking powder

½ cup milk or half & half

½ t. salt

Instructions:

*Combine dumpling ingredients in a mixing bowl.  The dough should be moist and soft.  Add more milk if it’s too thick-and flour if too thin.

*Scoop up a scant teaspoonful of dough and drop, one at a time, into the simmering (a rolling low boil) chicken and broth mixture.  The dumplings will puff up and grow a bit—so adjust the size of your dumplings accordingly.  Make the dumplings as uniform as possible, but I like for them to be rustic in appearance.  I also like to make the dumplings very small  to make the balance of dumplings to chicken mixture very pleasant.  Simmer for 10-20 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through but not hard.  You just  have to do a taste test to determine doneness.