Easy Chicken and Dumplings

I use a whole chicken that is left over from making my Homemade Chicken Stock. If you don’t have a whole, cooked chicken for this purpose (though you should totally try out that stock recipe), you can purchase a Best of the Fryer pack or even just use a couple boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs for your recipe. It should all work out fine. Either way, you need to cook your chicken prior to adding it to the below recipe – you can bake, boil, poach, etc.

Heat chicken stock over medium-high heat in a large stock pot. Add chicken and cook you are until able to easily shred chicken meat. Remove chicken and let cool. Shred it and set aside.

Add carrots, onion, celery and potatoes to the chicken stock and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine flour and milk and stir until no longer lumpy. Add milk mixture to the pot.

Add shredded chicken, parsley, thyme, kosher salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick and creamy.

To make the dumplings, in a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate medium bowl, combine, the wet ingredients (milk and melted butter) with the spices (oregano, tarragon and thyme). Slowly add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients. Gently mix with wooden spoon until just incorporated. Do not over-mix, as this will cause the dumplings to become less light and fluffy.

Drop dumpling mixture into the stew in heaping spoonfuls. Cover pot and simmer 15 minutes until cooked through. Do not open the cover of the pot during these 15 minutes. It is important to keep the steam in the pot to cook the dumplings. If, after 15 minutes, the dumplings are not cooked through, cover again and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.

For leftovers, add 2-3 cups more chicken stock and cook over medium-high heat. Season with additional kosher salt and/or ground black pepper, to taste.

Enjoy!