Recipe Redux: Chicken & Dumplings

Late last Thursday night, I was awakened by a clap of thunder on the house. I bolted upright in bed as Gizmo and Mariota scurried their furry bodies underneath the covers. I looked over to where the hubby normally lays, sighed, straightened the covers up around my neck, and laid back down. 

Things are going haywire at the plant lately, leaving the hubby's supervisor with no choice but to man the station 24 hours a day. Needless to say, this has resulted in the hubby working some of those dreaded night shifts. And left me home alone on a stormy night.

I awoke the next morning to a dreary autumn day. Everything was coated in rain, the trees had lost a tremendous amount of leaves the night before, and there wasn't a shred of blue to be seen in the sky. Just drab, gray clouds and bone-chilling wind. I stood at my living room window, taking in the soggy backyard and morose feel of the day. It was one of those days that I would have killed to just stay home in back when I was working. One of those days where you just want to grab your coziest sweatpants and latest enthralling read, and curl up on the couch with some hot chocolate. Lucky for me, that's just what I did.

Even luckier? I'd had therapy the day before, and feeling exhausted and overwhelmed afterwards, I just picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner. So, I had a bowl of fresh chicken broth and plenty of meat. What's a girl to do on a miserably cold fall day when left with broth and chicken?

Why, making something comforting, that is! Chicken and Dumplings to be exact. I'm just bringing you guys all my favorites lately, because this is another recipe at the top of my list for comfort foods. I've been making it since I learned how to cook. Surprisingly, this isn't a classic from my childhood. Well, I guess it's kind of from my childhood...

When I was in high school, one of my closest friends came from a really large family. She had 7 brothers and sisters, her being the oldest girl. Responsibility was 2nd nature to her, and so was working in the kitchen. Now me? I had never taken an interest in cooking. I was always too busy with whatever sport it was the time of year for and way too interested in other things, like clothes, makeup, and oh yeah, boys. But my friend, she always cooked for me and I was always impressed. One of her favorite things to make was Chicken and Dumplings, and I loved to eat it. Her version always had plenty of vegetables in it, lots of carrots, celery, and peas. I've since come to learn that this is not necessarily traditional, but it's the way I'd become accustomed to. 

So yeah, when it came time for me to adopt my own recipe for Chicken and Dumplings, of course I was going to go with a version that had a high volume of vegetables 😁

I've actually been wanting to re-do this recipe for awhile. It's one of the first that I put on the blog, and I've since made a big change to the recipe- no more cream of mushroom soup!

It's also one of those recipes whose pictures were shot on that 1st generation i-Phone. Definitely time for an update!

Besides chicken and chicken broth, you'll need those veggies I was just talking about.

A healthy dose of cooking sherry gives the broth oodles of flavor.

My recipes for dumplings couldn't get any simpler- Bisquick and milk. Mix. Done.

Don't be scared of dumplings- they are so effortless. Simply take spoonfuls of that Bisquick mixture and drop them into the broth. Once you've dropped all the dumpling mixture in, cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover the pan, "flip" all the dumplings, and cook for another 15 minutes. 

Seriously, dumplings are one of my favorite things on Earth. Those tender, ooey-gooey fluffs of biscuit all throughout the soup? 

Pure. Heaven. 😍😍😍

Good thing I've got leftovers in the fridge- this is gonna be my lunch today! Om nom nom 😋

That's it for this Monday. I hope y'all had a great weekend!

Recipe adapted from: Cooking Light

Ingredients (serves 6-heartily):

Soup-

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

10 cups Chicken Broth

1 cup heavy cream*

1 cup sour cream*

1/4 cup cooking sherry

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 bay leaves

2 chicken boullion cubes*

1/4 cup cold water

2 tbsp corn starch

meat from 1 rotisserie chicken

1 cup frozen peas

Dumplings-

2 cups baking mix (such as Bisquick)

2/3 cup whole milk

Garnish- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. When warm, add onion, carrot, and celery. Sauté for 7-8 minutes, or until veggies soften. Add garlic, sauté for 30 seconds to 1 minute. 

2. Add chicken broth, heavy cream, sour cream, sherry, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and bouillon to the pan. Stir to combine. Bring heat up on broth, but do no bring to a heavy boil. Wait until small bubbles form around the edge of the soup, then lower heat to low. Simmer like this for 15-20 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine water and cornstarch. Stir water mixture into broth.

4. Add chicken meat and frozen peas to the pan. Again, bring heat up on the soup but do not bring to a boil. 

5. When small bubbles have appeared around the edge of the pan, combine Bisquick and milk in bowl. Stir to combine. Begin dropping spoonfuls of the Bisquick mixture into the broth. Once you've spooned all the dough into the soup, cover the pan. Cook on low for 20 minutes. Remove lid, and flip the dumplings over. Cook on low for another 15-20 minutes, or until dumplings are done when you cut into them. Remove from heat, and stir in parsley, if using. Serve immediately. 

*Chef's Note- You can omit the heavy cream and sour cream if you so choose and substitute a can of cream of mushroom soup. If you do sub a can of cream of mushroom soup, be sure to omit the chicken bouillon cubes. Also, decrease the amount of salt by half. Therefore, you would use only 1 tsp of kosher salt instead of 2. Finally- if you do substitute a can of cream of mushroom soup, you can bring the soup to a boil. The heavy and sour cream are sensitive to temperature. 

Printable Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Chicken with Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce

Chicken Broccoli & Rice Casserole

Baked Chicken Parmesan 

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