116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Mad About Food: Cold Comfort
A bowl of Chicken and Dumplings Soup is perfect for winter weather
Merry Christmas everyone. While it is an exciting time of year, it’s still cold. I have the perfect comfort food for winter -- Chicken and Dumplings.
Winter is comfort food season. Woo hoo! My grandmother made the best chicken and dumplings, but her dumplings, in my opinion, were a bit heavy. I like my dumplings to have a melt in your mouth type of texture. It took some trial and error, but I found my niche using Bisquick. You may need to practice making your dumplings to get them how you like them.
I like mixed vegetables and a loose soup base, so my dumplings don’t melt away in all the yummy goodness. The trick is to get get the dumplings to float, hold its shape and flip while maintaining the consistency of the dumplings. I wish I could tell you it’s simple, but it’s a bit of a science, so just practice.
The spices, dark and white meat chicken, mixed vegetables and a soothing broth all sounds like a good time to me, so let’s roll up our sleeves, wash our hands and get started creating our very own version of Chicken and Dumplings.
Reach Michelle Madden at Da Munchie Plug LLC on Facebook.
Recipe
Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
1 large bag of mixed vegetables
2 Bay leaves (3 if they’re small)
1 large box of chicken broth
8 to 10 chicken drum sticks
2 to 3 chicken breasts
3 cups of Bisquick
1 cup of milk
Poultry seasoning to taste
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Directions
For the chicken and soup: In a large stock pot place the chicken and season with bay leaves, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and bouillon cubes. Let boil about 30 to 40 minutes until chicken easily separates from the bone using a fork.
After the chicken is cool enough to separate the meat from the bones using forks -- or if you’re patient enough to wait for it to cool enough for you to pull apart with your hands that works, too.
Place the shredded chicken back in the stock pot with the broth and add the mixed vegetables and bring to a rapid boil as the dumplings work best in rapid boil to hold their shape.
For the dumplings: While that’s going, in a large bowl combine Bisquick and milk in more of a folding, stirring motion. Test for consistency using a fork or a spatula. You’ll know you have some good dumpling dough when it folds easily into itself and rolls clean off the spatula/fork. I like my dumplings to be big, but be careful because they puff up while cooking so don’t make them too big (again, practice, practice, practice.)
Drop the dough into the pot. The dumplings will look as if they are floating and falling apart. Don’t touch them until they start to look a bit opaque in the middle. Then gently flip them and continue to boil another 10 to 15 minutes.
Enjoy! This soup pairs well with cornbread, as well as biscuits.
Source: Michelle Madden
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