As good as Grandma use to make them!

       Southern Chicken and Dumplings

My grandmother taught me how to make her chicken and dumplings, it was always one of my favorites growing up. I can remember helping her with the dough for the dumplings, rolling it out and cutting them up to add into the pot. This is a fun meal that can involve the family. 

We always started out boiling a whole chicken, keeping the broth it made for the base of the gravy. An alternative to this is to stir fry some chicken breast and add chicken broth later. I find the second option gives the meat more flavor than just boiling it. Once you have some cooked chicken you move on to bring the broth to a boil and adding in the dumplings, we always made them from scratch, and I'll include the dough recipe at the bottom! 

As stated above when I was a kid, my grandma always rolled the dough out then cut it into pieces to drop in, if you want a less messy and faster choice I use the pinch and drop style now. The way my grandma does it is by placing down a large brown paper bag, a harder to come by treasure of the old days when grocery shopping. Using flour to reduce sticking, she plop the dough down and use a rolling pin to flatten it to her desired thickness, then with a pizza cutter she would cut them into small squares. It takes a bit of time doing it this way so I would work on the dough while the chicken cooks. While the broth is at a rolling boil, you drop in the pieces of dough stiring every so often to prevent sticking to the bottom. Allow it to cook for ten to fifteen minutes, bring the gravy to your desired thickness and serve. If you find you are having trouble getting the gravy thicker just add a little flour. 

Dumpling Dough Recipe:

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons oil

1/3 cup of cold water

Mix everything in a bowl, I prefer to use my hands to kneed it but you can use a spoon instead. For the oil if you double or triple the recipe you don't have to add extra for it, and flour on your hands will reduce sticking. 

    - May