Chicken and Dumplins'

Well HOWDY peeps!  I'm talking southern today because I made some good old fashioned chicken and dumplings yesterday.   Yeah really I finally cooked!!!  Seriously we have so much food stuffed in our refrigerator from all the birthday celebrations this past weekend.  So we had a snow day yesterday and well that just means it is time to cook!

Let's do this....I'm just gonna tell you that it is not hard to make these but trying to make them while you have your laptop balanced on the kitchen counter watching the Baylor Bears basketball game because the Abogg was working with ESPN at the game....not such a good idea.  haha   It's ok, the dumplings turned out, I didn't dump flour on my new laptop and I saw my boy "working" at the game.  Working is a loose term here, he gets paid a LOT of money (for a college kid) to hold a cable for the camera man while sitting underneath the goal.  Yeah, he gets paid to sit and hold a cable in a primo viewing spot of the game AND they get all the food and drink he wants while he is there.  HELLLOOOOO where do we get a jobs like that as adults!  I'm happy for him, I think he's finally hitting his stride in college and finding that wonderful balance between fun, work and school.

beeep beeep beeep  (that's the bus backing itself back to the cooking)

First you need one of these  (gross- i know but necessary)

Now once this little baby is unwrapped he needs to go into a bout 2 quarts of water salted with 1 teaspoon of salt.

Aren't these things gross looking??? 

Just fire that water up to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for at least an hour, until good and tender.  Then we are going to remove the chicken and let it cool a bit before breaking it up into pieces. 

Now see, much better looking.

Let's bring that broth back up to a boil and add 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Now we need these items

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons shortening

3/4 cup buttermilk

Combine the flour, soda and 1/2 tsp salt.  cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

if you don't have a fancy smancy pastry cutter, just use a couple of forks or your fingers

Add the buttermilk stirring with a fork just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times

Roll the dough to 1/4" thickness.... I didn't quite get mine thin enough (only complaint from hubby)

I used a pizza cutter to cut the dumplings and it worked super well.

Once they are all cut and ready

We are going to drop them into the boiling broth, stirring after a few additions

Let them cook for about 10 minutes.

At least that's what the recipe said.. I think mine cooked about twice that long which was probably because they were too thick. I also had to mix up a little flour in cold water and pour into the dumplings because they weren't as thick as I like mine to be.

Stir in that chopped up chicken and we are ready to eat

they were yum and other than getting the dumplings thinner I thought the turned out well.  This is a weekend dinner or something if you are stuck at home on a snow day.  It does take a little time but it's not complicated so go ahead and tackle the dumplings...you won't be sorry.

Now if you will excuse me I really must get ready for my long overdue haircut and that pajama jeans infomercial is cracking me up!! 

Peace, Love and Yummies!!!