🇺🇸 United States · American South (Virginia and Kentucky cookbooks of the 19th century)
Chicken and dumplings
A one-pot American dish of chicken stewed in its own broth with dough dumplings, either rolled biscuit-style strips or dropped spoonfuls, cooked in the broth until they puff or soften; it ranges from brothy to thick.
Origin and history
Food writer Ronni Lundy, quoted in Taste, says chicken and dumplings probably began in a woman's kitchen whose name we will never know, and that neither the Civil War nor the Great Depression gave rise to it. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution traces dumplings served with stewed meat back to at least 1600, as kin to European boiled puddings, and finds chicken with dumplings in 19th-century Southern housekeeping books: Marion Cabell Tyree's 1879 Housekeeping in Old Virginia gives stewed chicken with dumplings made like biscuit but rolled thin.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 1 whole, about 1.6 kg3.5 lb chicken, a stewing hen or rooster is traditional and needs longer
- 1 large yellow onion, halved, for the stock
- leafy tops of 1 bunch celery, for the stock
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1/2 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 250 g2 cups all-purpose flour, for the dumplings, plus 1 tsp for the vegetables
- 85 g6 tbsp cold butter, cubed, for the dumplings
- 3 tbsp ice water, for the dumplings
- salt and black pepper, about 1 tsp each in the dough, more in the pot to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Method
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1. Soften the onion halves and celery tops in the olive oil in a large pot, add the chicken, cover with water and bring to a boil.
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2. Lower the heat, cover and simmer 30 to 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked; lift it out, strain the stock and keep 8 cups.
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3. For the dumplings, mix the 2 cups flour with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, rub in the cold butter until crumbly, then add the ice water a little at a time to make a shaggy dough.
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4. Roll the dough out to the thickness of pie crust (thicker for puffier dumplings) and cut it into strips about 10 cm (4 in) long.
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5. In a Dutch oven, cook the carrot, diced celery, diced onion and garlic until soft, stir in 1 tsp flour, then slowly add the 8 cups stock with the bay leaves, and season.
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6. Bring to a boil, drop in the dumpling strips and simmer about 30 minutes, until they are cooked through and soft but not gummy.
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7. Shred the chicken, discarding skin and bones, and return it to the pot.
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8. Whisk the cornstarch with 1 tbsp of the cream, stir in with the rest of the cream and the 2 tbsp butter, and boil about 10 minutes until thickened; remove the bay leaves and serve.
Notes
- Quantities follow a Southern recipe published by Taste (serves 4 to 6), without its tablespoon of Creole seasoning; it also puts four chicken feet in the stock for body, which is optional. The parent here is the rolled-strip form. A drop-dumpling form, described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, mixes self-rising flour with eggs and milk and tears or drops pieces into the boiling broth instead.
- Older birds were traditionally boiled for hours until tender, which is why the dish is slow; with a roasting chicken the stock takes about 45 minutes.
- Cream and the cornstarch are a richer, thicker finish; many cooks let the flour from the dumplings thicken the broth alone and serve it brothier.
- Reheat gently with a splash of stock, because dumplings keep absorbing liquid.
Adapted from Taste, Chicken and Dumplings, the Great Equalizer of Southern Cooking and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Saving Southern Recipes: chicken and dumplings.
At the festivals
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