Chicken and Dumplings: The Topic

[debbiemoose]

My grandmother, who made everything from scratch, used canned biscuits for dumplings, too. Since she was so particular, I can only assume that was the best approach. She left no recipe behind for anything she cooked - go get those recipes from mamas and grandmas NOW!

[racheld]

My Mammaw's (and in turn my Mother's) dumplings were the roll-out-on-the-counter type, made with some of the stock from the simmering pot. Fat carrot slices, chunks of celery and some leaves, and an onion or two, speared all round with toothpicks, THEN cut into sixths or eighths, gently bubbled in the deep heavy Wearever pot with the biggest old hen from the butcher's counter.

The yellow-fat old bird seethed away for a couple of hours, turning the vegetables into smooth, melting mouthfuls, and raising glistening dots of oily fat to the surface of the rich stock. A few peppercorns, a handful of salt from the little crock beneath the counter, maybe a small curl of sage from the bush perfuming the air out by the porch.

Two cups of the broth ladled into a small flat pan, inserted into the freezer for half an hour (so the dough wouldn't take a quick-rise as it was stirred together). Flour and broth stirred into a stiff mass, no herbs or salt or butter, then the whole chilly lump dumped onto the flour-dusted white countertop, top dusted with more flour, and rolled, elastic and lively, into a big round disc. Great slashes of the big ole butcherknife made squares and triangles and odd little shapes from the rounded edges.

A gentle slip into the bubbling pot, ten minutes lid off, ten with it on, and the dish was ready. The chicken was sort of yanked into presentable pieces, hacked into serving bits, sliding from the bone, with the backbone removed to a small plate for Grandpa's thorough attention and enjoyment. The whole stew was ladled into a huge farmhouse bowl, a big ceramic one with a yellow rim and flowers on the sides. We could have fed a regiment from that bowl.

And with side dishes of greens and silverpeas and chutneys and conserves and a big heavy-cut glass each of celery stalks and slender green onions next to the steaming, crusty cornbread or featherlight risin' rolls---Any general or king could have sat down to that table.

[R.E. Turner]

I make both varieties of dumplings: "drop" dumplings or rolled. However, in my SE Georgia-since-Oglethorpe family, only rolled dumplings counted as the real thing. Two notes, though: My granny (great-grandmother,) grandmother, and mother always rolled/roll their noodle-type dumplings quite thinly (1/4 inch or so,) and the real "trick" to a proper pot of dumplings was to let the dough rest and dry for at least an hour before adding to the boiling pot of soup.

Frankly, I've never heard of the canned biscuit variation on dumplings until reading this thread. However, I certainly wouldn't object -- sounds tasty! Among my own family, the "lazy day" variation is to cut up flour tortillas and use those as dumplings. Cheap, simple, and the kids adore! (Whatever variety of chicken soup I make, my eight-year-old son requires that I reserve some amount of the stock and meat to make "mock dumplings" from tortillas. Frankly, this is the only way I typically make flat dumplings, since my perpetually-shedding old dog makes it unwise for me to roll out dough and leave for an hour or more to dry. The "secret ingredient" of Hair of Chart Polski isn't usually appreciated! )

[pterostyrax]

My mother's were the best I have ever had - rolled dumplings (is there really any other kind?) with the key ingredient being chicken fat cooled down from the boiled chicken stock that was cut into the dough. No other seasonings except salt that resulted in, quite simply, the quintessence of chicken. When done correctly, one bite of one of these ethereal dumplings conjures up the image of a "chicken cloud".

From my earliest memories, this was always my birthday meal.

[foodiehall]

My Mammaw's (and in turn my Mother's) dumplings were the roll-out-on-the-counter type, made with some of the stock from the simmering pot.  Fat carrot slices, chunks of celery and some leaves, and an onion or two, speared all round with toothpicks, THEN cut into sixths or eighths, gently bubbled in the deep heavy Wearever pot with the biggest old hen from the butcher's counter. 

The yellow-fat old bird seethed away for a couple of hours, turning the vegetables into smooth, melting mouthfuls, and raising glistening dots of oily fat to the surface of the rich stock.    A few peppercorns, a handful of salt from the little crock beneath the counter, maybe a small curl of sage from the bush perfuming the air out by the porch.

Two cups of the broth ladled into a small flat pan, inserted into the freezer for half an hour (so the dough wouldn't take a quick-rise as it was stirred together).  Flour and broth stirred into a stiff mass, no herbs or salt or butter, then the whole chilly lump dumped onto the flour-dusted white countertop, top dusted with more flour, and rolled, elastic and lively, into a big round disc.    Great slashes of the big ole butcherknife made squares and triangles and odd little shapes from the rounded edges. 

A gentle slip into the bubbling pot, ten minutes lid off, ten with it on, and the dish was ready.    The chicken was sort of yanked into presentable pieces, hacked into serving bits, sliding from the bone, with the backbone removed to a small plate for Grandpa's thorough attention and enjoyment.  The whole stew was ladled into a huge farmhouse bowl, a big ceramic one with a yellow rim and flowers on the sides.    We could have fed a regiment from that bowl.

And with side dishes of greens and silverpeas and chutneys and conserves and a big heavy-cut glass each of celery stalks and slender green onions next to the steaming, crusty cornbread or featherlight risin' rolls---Any general or king could have sat down to that table.

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I was so inspired by all these people waxing poetic about their memories of chicken & dumplins that I printed out your post and used it as a guide to cook up my first pot of c&d for dinner tonight. And it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. I used a left-over roast chicken from a few nights ago, simmered it for an hour or so with your ingredients, followed your instructions about using the broth for the pastry....I poured the 2 cups of broth into a large bowl, then kept adding flour until dough felt right. Next time, I think I'll reverse this process with the broth and flour. Also I'll cut the pastry into smaller pieces. I could probably keep adding water to the leftover c&d and have it last for quite a while. I served some broccoli along with the c&d; didn't have time to come up with all those other side dishes and breads. Those dumplins were enough "bread" for me.

[kpurvis]

Rather than wade into the dumpling question, can I throw out another question? My mother always made C&D with eggs added to the final mix. She'd make the mixture and the chicken, then while the dumplings were cooking, she'd cracked several eggs into the pot and let them cook until solid. I've asked her where that came from and she isn't sure. It was something her mother and my father's mother both did. She thinks it was a way to stretch the pot to serve more people when chickens could be scrawny and maybe hadn't yielded that much meat.

[Varmint]

Did she just add whole eggs into the broth, essentially poaching them, or did she whip them up first -- sort of like an egg drop soup? I like the idea of adding eggs, particular intact ones. My only problem is that if I'm making "northern style" C&D (fluffy dumplings), the top of my broth is covered with dumplings leaving no room for eggs. If I make more of a noodle-like dumpling (chicken and pastry?), I'd have the room.

The thought of having a poached egg, yolk still runny, in a dish of chicken and dumplings sounds absolutely exquisite to me. And no, I've never heard of this before.

[racheld]

Chris' twin Alabama aunts introduced us to the custom of "eggs in the pot" about fifteen years ago. These were lightly boiled eggs, roughly chopped, stirred in gently after the pot was taken from the burner.

Aunt B made LIGHT, melty ribbons of dumplings, mingling with the vegetables and taken-from-the-bone chicken, with the egg bits and a few grinds of pepper stirred in last...she held that "early pepper" made the broth gray. And the eggs never developed that overcooked rubbery consistency, because of the delicate way they were handled.

Her sister, the other Aunt B, made dumplings of rolled-out Pillsbury biscuits, handmade dough strips, and in later years, the under-the-hairdryer recipe for using tortilla strips, which, depending on the weather, the temperature of the pot, or general principles, would turn out light and as tasty as they could be, considering their original intentions and consistency, or they would drift to pieces in the pot, dissolving into a chicken-and-egg-dotted ultra-thick soup which still tasted okay if you could get past the gluey clumps.

I dare to post this despite the uproar that my mentioning eggs in giblet gravy precipitated. I stand ready for the onslaught.

[kpurvis]

Did she just add whole eggs into the broth, essentially poaching them, or did she whip them up first -- sort of like an egg drop soup?  I like the idea of adding eggs, particular intact ones.  My only problem is that if I'm making "northern style" C&D (fluffy dumplings), the top of my broth is covered with dumplings leaving no room for eggs.  If I make more of a noodle-like dumpling (chicken and pastry?), I'd have the room.

The thought of having a poached egg, yolk still runny, in a dish of chicken and dumplings sounds absolutely exquisite to me.  And no, I've never heard of this before.

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No, they were whole. Cracked and dropped into the simmering broth just before dropping in the dumpings, so they were poached. She cooked them long enough for the yellows to be solid.

[sparrowgrass]

I have heard that some folks, if they butchered a hen, would put the "unborn" eggs into the soup. Seems like I remember 5 or 6 eggs forming inside a hen, the biggest one almost ready to be laid, and the rest smaller and smaller and smaller, and mostly yolk.

[sarashrugs]

Admin: merged threads.

I've been using the recipe out of The Best Recipe cookbook and I was happy with it until I went to New Orleans and had it at Herbsaint. The flavour was amazing and the dumpling was like a baked pastry on top. Does anyone have any ideas or special tricks as to what I should/could? do to improve my results? The recipe starts out by sauteeing the hacked up neck, back and wings and onion for about 5 minutes till they lose their pink color and then simmering them for about 20 minutes until they give up most of their liquid. Then you add a 6 cups of hot water and poach the skinned legs thighs and breast of a whole bird with a little salt and a bay leaf for another 20 minutes. Then you toss out the neck, back and wings and remove the meat from the bones set it aside and I put the strained broth in the freezer so the fat will congeal and I can skim it off easily. Steam the onions carrots and celery and set aside. Make the dumplings set aside. The dumpling recipe is obviously completely different than what they served. Then you make a roux with reseved chicken fat and thyme add some sherry add 4 cups of the broth after the fat has been skimmed from it and add the chicken and vegetables back to the pot. then you add the dumplings and cover and steam them. Like I said I like this recipe but it just doesn't have the intense savory flavor of the other. any suggestions for ways I could get more flavor out of these techniques? I was thinking maybe if the chicken parts were cooked a different way? Maybe if the stock was done a different way? What do you think?

[kpurvis]

One suggestion I'd offer: I notice a big difference in flavor when I make C&D by starting with a hen to make the broth. After thinking there was no such thing as a stewing hen anymore, I discovered that if I look in the frozen poultry case, where they keep things like capons and bone-in turkey breasts outside the Thanksgiving season, they usually have hens, too. You can spot them because they're bigger than a roasting chicken.

When you thaw one of those and use it to make broth, you'll get broth with much deeper flavor. When the chicken is cooked, the skin is thicker and the meat is darker and firmer.

[sarashrugs]

One suggestion I'd offer: I notice a big difference in flavor when I make C&D by starting with a hen to make the broth. After thinking there was no such thing as a stewing hen anymore, I discovered that if I look in the frozen poultry case, where they keep things like capons and bone-in turkey breasts outside the Thanksgiving season, they usually have hens, too. You can spot them because they're bigger than a roasting chicken.

When you thaw one of those and use it to make broth, you'll get broth with much deeper flavor. When the chicken is cooked, the skin is thicker and the meat is darker and firmer.

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Damn! I just got back from the store with a roaster. Thank's for the suggestion anyway.

[Torrilin]

This is one of my favorite soups. It's also the cause of some early culinary shocks. See, I grew up in Central PA, and my parents weren't native to the area. My mom's chicken soup with dumplings is a delicious dish of stewed chicken, manymanymany vegetables and it's topped with dumplings based on a drop biscuit dough. We didn't eat out much, so one day as a preteen I was in a restaurant and ordered chicken and dumplings. After all, I knew *that* had to be edible. So imagine my shock when instead of a plate of light fluffy dumplings and a thin soup, I got a big bowl of chicken noodle soup!

That was my first encounter with PA Dutch chicken and dumplings. When I got over my shock, I enjoyed it a lot. I still don't know how to make the PA Dutch version, since to me it feels like restaurant food. Must be early imprinting. And I know there have to be other versions of chicken and dumplings... So let's talk about 'em

I've got a hankering for the one I grew up on, so I'm going to visit the butcher tomorrow and get myself a chicken. I'll need carrots and onion for sure. Potatoes, parsnips, turnips and rutebegas wouldn't be a bad idea either. I'll have to see what the farmer's market has, since it's a bit early for root vegetables. And I'm low on butter, and I need a bit for the dumplings.

Emily

[Kent Wang]

Can this be considered a Southern dish, or is it more broadly American?

[Torrilin]

Can this be considered a Southern dish, or is it more broadly American?

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Which one? The kind my Minnesotan mother makes, or the kind my friends' mothers make? Since PA is by definition north of the Mason Dixon line, my friends' moms must have been making a Northern dish. And well, I have no idea how my mom learned to make her version. I know it's not Scandinavian, since her family was very set on ignoring their heritage. And besides, I find it hard to believe that American cuisine is the only one with chicken and dumplings .

Anyway, I made a pot of chicken stock today. Nice clear golden liquid, and the meat should be poached nicely and still good to eat. Next step is to chill the stock and meat separately. Then I can shred the meat off the bones, and degrease the stock. I should get that done this evening.

Emily

[Kent Wang]

I've always considered it a Southern dish with the similar chicken noodle soup being more broadly American, but I'm not a native so I may be wrong.

Once I had a chicken dumpling soup that had shredded chicken and tiny dime-sized dumplings at a county fair in rural Texas. It was unusual but very good.

[rooftop1000]

My grandmothers dumplings are pretty unique, and pretty heavy too. She just mixes a few big handfulls and Romano cheese with 2 eggs and black pepper, then adds flour to make a very stiff dough. This goes into either boiling chicken or turkey soup in little pinches "the tip of a teaspoon" They cook in about 10 min.

Kind of more like pasta or gnocchi than a traditional dumpling.

tracey

[judiu]

This is one of my favorite soups. It's also the cause of some early culinary shocks. See, I grew up in Central PA, and my parents weren't native to the area. My mom's chicken soup with dumplings is a delicious dish of stewed chicken, manymanymany vegetables and it's topped with dumplings based on a drop biscuit dough. We didn't eat out much, so one day as a preteen I was in a restaurant and ordered chicken and dumplings. After all, I knew *that* had to be edible. So imagine my shock when instead of a plate of light fluffy dumplings and a thin soup, I got a big bowl of chicken noodle soup!

That was my first encounter with PA Dutch chicken and dumplings. When I got over my shock, I enjoyed it a lot. I still don't know how to make the PA Dutch version, since to me it feels like restaurant food. Must be early imprinting. And I know there have to be other versions of chicken and dumplings... So let's talk about 'em

I've got a hankering for the one I grew up on, so I'm going to visit the butcher tomorrow and get myself a chicken. I'll need carrots and onion for sure. Potatoes, parsnips, turnips and rutebegas wouldn't be a bad idea either. I'll have to see what the farmer's market has, since it's a bit early for root vegetables. And I'm low on butter, and I need a bit for the dumplings.

Emily

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The best chicken & dumplings I've ever made were with (excuse it please) Bisquick dumplings, made by the recipe on the box, but with added seasoning; G.W. Bell's seasoning, garlic powder (again, sorry!) and onion powder (hey, I was on the road, OK?) Loved by all, and people came with plates in hand when they smelled it cooking!

[Torrilin]

The soup is all gone, thanks to life interfering.

On Wednesday, I made the stock. I brought the chicken parts up to temperature and poached them for around an hour at a simmer. This was long enough to get the connective tissue melty and give the stock a lot of gelatin. I was using the bones of 1 chicken to about 8 quarts of water, and ended up with a very soft gel. Next step was to let it cool enoug that it was safe to fish out the chicken parts. Then put both the stock and the chicken parts in the fridge overnight. If this sounds like a nonstandard way to do stock, it is. Mom and I ran several comparisons of stock making methods when I was in my early 20s, and this is the one we found gave the best results. It's based on what seems to be the standard Chinese/Japanese method of stockmaking. YMMV, I learned more from the side by side comparisons than I have from making stock over and over the "right" way.

On Thursday I had a job interview, and got the job. Whee . This put a crimp in my posting, since I started on Friday. When I wasn't at the interview, I did kitchen stuff, including picking the chicken, skimming fat off the stock and a lot of veggie prep.

The stock was cold and not very fatty. There was a thin spotty layer of fat on the surface, and the stock clearly didn't have fat incorporated into it. It was too pristinely clear. So, scrape the fat off the top. Then I realized that the reason there'd been no scum to skim was it had all sunk to the bottom. There was a layer of sediment on the bottom, clearly made up of scum. I didn't want that in my soup! So I carefully got the nice clean stock out, disturbing the bottom layer as little as possible with my ladle, and then poured the scum down the drain. Since I don't have a strainer, that was my only option.

Next I picked the meat. It's best to peel the skin off, then pick the meat. Sometimes the skin won't peel, or it'll be glued to the meat with gelatin. Cook's choice what to do then. I was perfectly willing to futz for quite a while on skin that didn't want to peel, but if it had gelatin... how could I throw that out? Meanwhile, my partner snitched bits of meat to make us quesadillas. Dump picked meat into scum-free stockpot, with scum-free stock.

Then I chopped an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, seemingly endless carrots (little tiny ones from the farmer's market... too early in the season for bigger ones), and a potato for the veggies. The carrots and potato got peeled because I've tried 'em unpeeled and it makes the soup taste nasty. Toss chopped veggies in, and bring soup to a simmer. Let it go for around an hour or so, and the veggies will be cooked just about right. The carrots and potatoes were the only good looking root veggies at our farmers market this week, so I had to make do.

For dumplings, I used my fallback recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Their drop biscuit recipe is the one recipe I actually use regularly. I couldn't find the stockpot's lid, so rather than cooking uncovered 20 min then covered 20 min, I cooked it uncovered the whole time. Results were fine, tho the dumpling tops didn't get normal steamed texture.

When the dumplings are done, turn off the heat and devour.

And now I know how to scale down my mom's chicken and dumplings. It's the number of chickens. One chicken makes a fine batch to serve 4, with a bit leftover. 2 chickens plus a bag of chicken bones from the butcher makes Mom's usual batch size, fit to feed a family with three teenagers for most of a week. Scale veggies to number of chickens. And for god's sake, have more vegetable variety than I did.

Emily

[Ann_T]

Chicken and Dumplings is a favourite here. My mother was not what you would call a good cook but she made a pretty good chicken stew with dumplings.

I was really surprised the first time I ever had the noodle style dumplings too. I call them Southern Style Dumplings, because a friend from Alabama made them for me the first time. But they are also called Chicken and Sliders. I don't know if that is a Canadian thing or not. I have three different recipes that I use for dumplings. It just depends on what I feel like whether I make the southern style dumplings, or the fluffy drop style dumpling and sometimes I add some fresh bread crumbs and parsley for somethng a little different.

I have to have dumplings with beef stew too.

Ann

[gus_tatory]

yeah, my grandmother made a loively version of this, and in Nova Scotia the dumplings are frequently called "doughboys"--although i am unable to explain the origins of that!

it was what you all describe--a very flavourful, veggie-rich broth/stew, and for the last say, 20 minutes, the rolled, floured tea biscuits would be placed on top, followed by the pot's lid, and we were not allowed to remove the lid for the steaming time.

God bless my granny Marion, her food was awesome, and when i learned to cook, the first thing i made were tea biscuits.

[Chris Hennes]

When you all (or "y'all" depending on where you live) make chicken and dumplings, is it more like a soup, or more like a stew? I've never really questioned it, my mother always made hers more like a stew so I do too, but some of the descriptions above definitely sound more soup-like.

[kayb]

I love chicken and dumplings, but don't make them a lot, for whatever reason, possibly because there are so many little meat-and-threes around here that make wonderful ones....

One excellent cook I know told me to always start with just two or three dumplings, as they'd disintegrate and thicken the stock; then go ahead and put a big batch in.

The best dumplings I ever had were made with homemade pie crust. No added seasonings in the dough; plenty of black pepper in the broth. Being not much of a pie-crust maker, I use the rolled ones from the pastry case when I make my own C&D.

Sara, if you're still wondering what tweaks you need to make in your recipe -- I'm saying one big change would be to NOT skim that fat. You want that wonderful deliciousness permeating the finished product.

[JAZ]

When you all (or "y'all" depending on where you live) make chicken and dumplings, is it more like a soup, or more like a stew? I've never really questioned it, my mother always made hers more like a stew so I do too, but some of the descriptions above definitely sound more soup-like.

Chris, I make mine soup-like, but if I have leftovers, but the second day the dumplings (I make the biscuit-style dumplings) have disintegrated enough to thicken the liquid to a stew consistency. So I guess it depends on the timing.