Spoon Drop Dumplings

[iris]

This is how I make chicken and dumplings or whatever with dumplings. A friend on FB kitchen tested this and said it turned out well. I had never written it down before. LOL Take that! Paula Dean!


I'm from the mountains, southern part LOL, and I don't usually put veggies in the dumplings unless I'm making veggie dumplings. Peas make excellent dumplings. I'll boil the chicken in a LARGE pot (there's a reason for it) and when I take out the chicken I'll add milk to the broth and start bringing up the heat real slow. Salt and pepper to taste. For the dumplings I'll take about a cup or so of self rising flour in a little bowl. I'll add an extra heaping spoon of baking powder to make them puff better. Then in a glass I'll put about a 1/4 cup of cooking oil and half fill the glass with milk for my liquid. I'll pour the liquid in small amounts into the flour and stir till it makes a dough that will fall slowly off the spoon. If it's too thick the dumplings will be hard and if it's too thin they will fall apart and disappear in the broth. Now I'll bring up the heat on the broth and watch till it just starts to boil. That's why you need a big pot, so the milky broth won't boil over the edges so fast. Then I'll start dropping teaspoon fulls of batter into the bubbling broth. Be pretty quick about it so the foam won't get ahead of you. When I get it all in I'll turn down the heat to simmer and cover the pot and leave it for 8 minutes or so. Then I'll take the pot off the heat and sit it aside to cool. It takes a little practice but it makes some really good dumplings. A pot of that and a pan of corn bread and I'm in heaven.

[Suluby]

Feb 5, 2012 11:33:38 GMT -5 @iris said:

This is how I make chicken and dumplings or whatever with dumplings. A friend on FB kitchen tested this and said it turned out well. I had never written it down before. LOL Take that! Paula Dean!

I'm from the mountains, southern part LOL, and I don't usually put veggies in the dumplings unless I'm making veggie dumplings. Peas make excellent dumplings. I'll boil the chicken in a LARGE pot (there's a reason for it) and when I take out the chicken I'll add milk to the broth and start bringing up the heat real slow. Salt and pepper to taste. For the dumplings I'll take about a cup or so of self rising flour in a little bowl. I'll add an extra heaping spoon of baking powder to make them puff better. Then in a glass I'll put about a 1/4 cup of cooking oil and half fill the glass with milk for my liquid. I'll pour the liquid in small amounts into the flour and stir till it makes a dough that will fall slowly off the spoon. If it's too thick the dumplings will be hard and if it's too thin they will fall apart and disappear in the broth. Now I'll bring up the heat on the broth and watch till it just starts to boil. That's why you need a big pot, so the milky broth won't boil over the edges so fast. Then I'll start dropping teaspoon fulls of batter into the bubbling broth. Be pretty quick about it so the foam won't get ahead of you. When I get it all in I'll turn down the heat to simmer and cover the pot and leave it for 8 minutes or so. Then I'll take the pot off the heat and sit it aside to cool. It takes a little practice but it makes some really good dumplings. A pot of that and a pan of corn bread and I'm in heaven.

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Thanks, Iris. For some reason, I always thought it would be a lot more complicated!!

My family doesn't like boiled chicken at all .... so I'd probably start with chicken soup (I prepare it as a clear consomme) and heat that up to make the dumplings. I'd boil some chicken in it for me! Milk isn't a problem at all. I use Coffee-Rich, a non-dairy "creamer" as a sub. Full strength, it's the equivalent of heavy cream and with half water, it's like milk.

For the baking powder .... is it a teaspoon or a tablespoon that should be heaping?


Funny, though ..... it sounds a lot like making matzah balls! Too soft - no good ..... too hard - no good ..... but when they are just perfect?? YUM!!

How do you serve the chicken and dumplings? Does the liquid the dumplings are cooked in used like a gravy?

I'm sure I'll have a gazillion more questions when I think about them ..... but this is a great start!

Thanks!

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2012 11:33:38 GMT -5 @iris said:

This is how I make chicken and dumplings or whatever with dumplings. A friend on FB kitchen tested this and said it turned out well. I had never written it down before. LOL Take that! Paula Dean!


I'm from the mountains, southern part LOL, and I don't usually put veggies in the dumplings unless I'm making veggie dumplings. Peas make excellent dumplings. I'll boil the chicken in a LARGE pot (there's a reason for it) and when I take out the chicken I'll add milk to the broth and start bringing up the heat real slow. Salt and pepper to taste. For the dumplings I'll take about a cup or so of self rising flour in a little bowl. I'll add an extra heaping spoon of baking powder to make them puff better. Then in a glass I'll put about a 1/4 cup of cooking oil and half fill the glass with milk for my liquid. I'll pour the liquid in small amounts into the flour and stir till it makes a dough that will fall slowly off the spoon. If it's too thick the dumplings will be hard and if it's too thin they will fall apart and disappear in the broth. Now I'll bring up the heat on the broth and watch till it just starts to boil. That's why you need a big pot, so the milky broth won't boil over the edges so fast. Then I'll start dropping teaspoon fulls of batter into the bubbling broth. Be pretty quick about it so the foam won't get ahead of you. When I get it all in I'll turn down the heat to simmer and cover the pot and leave it for 8 minutes or so. Then I'll take the pot off the heat and sit it aside to cool. It takes a little practice but it makes some really good dumplings. A pot of that and a pan of corn bread and I'm in heaven.

Yum...love the chicken and dumplings but I make what the older folks call 'slick' dumplings--they're more like noodles than the biscuit dough and almost exactly like yours except we put broth in rather than milk and we roll them thin on a floured board, cutting them in strips and dropping them into the simmering broth. I like slick dumplings best because they don't disintegrate when they're heated up.

[iris]

Feb 5, 2012 11:54:45 GMT -5 Suluby said:

Feb 5, 2012 11:33:38 GMT -5 @iris said:

This is how I make chicken and dumplings or whatever with dumplings. A friend on FB kitchen tested this and said it turned out well. I had never written it down before. LOL Take that! Paula Dean!

I'm from the mountains, southern part LOL, and I don't usually put veggies in the dumplings unless I'm making veggie dumplings. Peas make excellent dumplings. I'll boil the chicken in a LARGE pot (there's a reason for it) and when I take out the chicken I'll add milk to the broth and start bringing up the heat real slow. Salt and pepper to taste. For the dumplings I'll take about a cup or so of self rising flour in a little bowl. I'll add an extra heaping spoon of baking powder to make them puff better. Then in a glass I'll put about a 1/4 cup of cooking oil and half fill the glass with milk for my liquid. I'll pour the liquid in small amounts into the flour and stir till it makes a dough that will fall slowly off the spoon. If it's too thick the dumplings will be hard and if it's too thin they will fall apart and disappear in the broth. Now I'll bring up the heat on the broth and watch till it just starts to boil. That's why you need a big pot, so the milky broth won't boil over the edges so fast. Then I'll start dropping teaspoon fulls of batter into the bubbling broth. Be pretty quick about it so the foam won't get ahead of you. When I get it all in I'll turn down the heat to simmer and cover the pot and leave it for 8 minutes or so. Then I'll take the pot off the heat and sit it aside to cool. It takes a little practice but it makes some really good dumplings. A pot of that and a pan of corn bread and I'm in heaven.

[/size]


Thanks, Iris. For some reason, I always thought it would be a lot more complicated!!

My family doesn't like boiled chicken at all .... so I'd probably start with chicken soup (I prepare it as a clear consomme) and heat that up to make the dumplings. I'd boil some chicken in it for me! Milk isn't a problem at all. I use Coffee-Rich, a non-dairy "creamer" as a sub. Full strength, it's the equivalent of heavy cream and with half water, it's like milk.

For the baking powder .... is it a teaspoon or a tablespoon that should be heaping?


Funny, though ..... it sounds a lot like making matzah balls! Too soft - no good ..... too hard - no good ..... but when they are just perfect?? YUM!!

How do you serve the chicken and dumplings? Does the liquid the dumplings are cooked in used like a gravy?

I'm sure I'll have a gazillion more questions when I think about them ..... but this is a great start!

Thanks!


[/quote]

Use a table spoon. I actually just pick up what I guess is a soup spoon out of the drawer. It's the bigger one in any case. That's another thing about my kind of cooking. I'll look at it, I'll taste it, I'll stir it, but I probably won't measure it. LOL The rolled and cut kind that Dawg is talking about is probably more common than the spoon dropped ones. I just do them this way cause that's how my momma did them and I learned to prefer them this way.
That's a brilliant stroke with the creamer. I would never have thought of it. As for serving, I personally just take out the chicken and keep it on the side. Hubby likes the dumplings but not the chicken so much. In a more formal situation, I personally would remove the chicken and put it in a casserole dish in bite sized pieces then pour/ladle the dumplings over it. Most folks just remove the chicken to get it off the bone, tear it and put it back in the pot. Most folks just let the liquid be a thick "soup", I personally use it like a gravy over what ever else I have fixed. Hence the necessity of corn bread. My friend took a pic of hers. I'll go get it and post it.

[iris]

This is how Vicki's came out. She added veggies which is not a bad idea.

[Suluby]

Feb 5, 2012 12:27:46 GMT -5 @iris said:

This is how Vicki's came out. She added veggies which is not a bad idea.

Yummm!!! Thanks for the pic!

That's kinda what I was thinking of. And that would definitely work for my guys!

I would probably cook up a mess of fresh veggies in the broth before I made the dumplings ..... and then combine the shredded meat and the veggies and the dumplings in the pot.

I'll probably have to thicken the liquid with some arrowroot, though ...... my family like gravies and sauces to be very thick. I really like the arrowroot as a thickener. It is soooo much easier to work with than cornstarch. Cornstarch requires a cold liquid brought slowly to a boil with constant stirring. Yuck!! The arrowroot gets mixed with a bit of water and dumped into a pot of hot liquid, stirred a few times and it's done! It gives the gravy/sauce that glistening look that fancy-shmancy chefs get in professional pictures ..... and you never ever get that starchy taste!

The next time I go the the butcher, I'll get a whole chicken and try this!!

Thanks so much, Iris! I can hardly wait!!

[iris]

Go for it, Su. They aren't really complicated, especially for someone who already has experience with something like matza balls. Having a "feel" for the right consistency helps.

[iris]

He he. I just made a pot of dumplings with peas rather than chicken. It dawns on me that without meat or meat products these might be a little more kosher friendly.

[kjc]

Mouth watering, my mom used to make dumplings, looked very simillar to the pic posted.