Southern Chicken and Dumplings

Southern Chicken and Dumplings

It’s hard not to love chicken and dumplings, even if you’re not from the South. This is a great dish for getting cozy on a cold winter day. Kind of like a creamy spin on chicken noodle soup, the dumplings are a lot like thick, homemade noodles cooked right in the pot. Some folks make them with pancake and biscuit mix.

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Southern Chicken and Dumplings


Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken, cut into wings, legs, thighs, and breasts
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 4 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 (12-ounce) can canned cream of chicken

For the dumplings:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • Ice water, roughly 3/4 cup

Directions:

  1. Place chicken pieces in one layer on the bottom of a large stock or soup pot. Add stock, onion, celery, thyme, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce to a simmer and cook until meat is tender and cooked through, 40 minutes to an hour.
  2. Meanwhile, stir flour and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Mound into the middle of bowl; slowly drip ice water into the bowl, using your hands to mix until dough comes together into a ball. Set aside.
  3. Turn heat on chicken mixture to low; remove chicken to a bowl or platter with tongs to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove skin from chicken; pull meat away from the bones and into pieces, returning meat to the pot.
  4. Return heat on chicken mixture to medium; add cream of chicken and additional liquid if needed (so that all meat is submerged and there are about two 2 inches of broth to drop the dumplings into). Stir to mix and heat through, bringing to a gentle boil.
  5. For neat little uniform dumplings, roll reserved dough out to 1/8-inch thick on a floured surface; cut into 1-inch strips. Pull off about 1-inch of dough at a time. For lumpier, more irregular home-style dumplings, pinch small pieces of dough straight off of the ball. Drop into the boiling liquid; cook until fluffy and no longer doughy, 5 to 10 minutes. Dumplings will begin to float as they finish cooking.
  6. Ladle hearty spoonfuls into bowls to serve.