I love comfort food. One of my favorite dishes chicken
and dumplings is the ultimate comfort food. I don’t care what the season is a
steaming pot of chicken and dumplings always hits the stop.
I found a wonderful recipe the other day with a
step-by-step guide at the gratefulgirl.com the recipe is both delicious and comforting.
Place a whole thawed chicken (that is rinsed and cavity cleared) into a large stockpot. Cover with water. (If you want you can add 1/2 cup each of chopped onion, celery, and carrots to help flavor the broth, but it really is not necessary). Bring the water to boiling and cook the chicken for 1 hour.
When done, remove the chicken to a large bowl to cool down.
Pour the broth through a sieve to strain out any veggies, particles, etc. Pour broth back into stockpot. I discard the veggies I flavored the broth with, but if you want to leave them in, go for it!
When chicken has cooled, remove the skin.
The chicken will be so tender the legs and thighs will easily tear off. I like to put a flexible cutting board on a baking sheet with edges, to help catch any liquid run-off.
Cut or pull off all the meat from the chicken, and place into a large bowl. The chicken should be cut into bite sized pieces. I usually end up with between 4-5 cups of shredded chicken.
I like to use about 2 -2 1/2 cups of chicken for this recipe. You can use all of the chicken if you want, but I prefer to put the rest of the chicken into a freezer bag and into my freezer, so I have cooked chicken ready for another meal (like quesadillas, enchiladas, casseroles, etc.), as well!
Add 2 to 2 1/2 cups of shredded chicken back into the pot of chicken broth.
I add two large cubes of chicken bouillon to the hot broth to add additional flavor.
Heat the broth back up on medium high heat. While it is coming to a boil, I make the dumplings. I know a lot of people make big puffy biscuit-like “dumplings”, but this is how my Grandma made them (Southern-style), and that is why they look like large noodles. I start by blending flour, salt, and shortening together using a pastry cutter, cutting it in until the shortening is the size of small peas. Easy!
Hot water and more flour is added and mixture is firmed up into a large dough ball. Let dough rest for about 10 minutes, then shape into 3 equal sized portions.
The dough is rolled out on a flour covered surface, one dough ball at a time, until it is thinly rolled out, and is about the size of a pie crust.
Use a pizza cutter (or a very sharp knife) to cut the dough into long strips about an inch wide. Repeat the entire rolling/cutting process with the other two dough balls, adding additional flour to cutting board before rolling each one.
Once the broth is boiling, carefully drop the “dumplings” a few at a time into the boiling broth, continuing until all dumplings are in the pot.
Add a small amount of butter, as well as salt and pepper to the soup to help season it. Taste the broth, then add additional salt and/or pepper to suit your taste.
Mix a couple spoonfuls of flour with some cold water (blend it well with a fork), and add it to the soup. This will help to thicken up the broth.
Cook the Chicken n’ Dumplings until broth has thickened a bit, and is very hot. When ready to serve, ladle the soup into individual serving bowls, and serve with a big piece of crusty french bread on the side. That’s it! This is so yummy… and is “comfort food” at its best! Not only that, but the leftovers are amazing!
Sure hope you will give this soup a try. Nothing better than having a big pot of delicious soup
available to slurp on during the cold Fall and Winter seasons! Enjoy!
Grandma's Southern-Style Chicken n' Dumplings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Southern-Style Chicken n' Dumplings... a filling soup, just the way my Grandma used to make it!
As Prepared By: JB at The Grateful Girl Cooks!
Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 8 servings
Ingredients
To Cook Chicken And Make Broth:
- 1 whole chicken, thawed and cleaned (remove and discard giblets from cavity)
- ½ cup carrots, celery, and onion (OPTIONAL-to flavor the chicken broth)
- Water to completely cover chicken in a large stockpot.
To Make The Dumplings:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 heaping Tablespoons vegetable shortening
- ½ cup HOT water
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
To finish soup:
- Two large chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup water mixed with 2 Tablespoons flour
- Salt and Pepper, to taste (approx. 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper)
Directions
- Put the chicken and the veggies (if using) in a large stockpot. Cover completely with water. Bring to a quick boil, then continue cooking chicken for one hour. When done, remove chicken to large bowl to cool. Strain broth to remove leftover veggies or other particles. Return broth to stockpot.
- Once chicken is cool, remove skin, then cut chicken into bite sized pieces. (At this point I divide the chicken pieces in half, and freeze half for use in another meal).
- Add chicken pieces (approx. 2½ cups) back into chicken broth. Heat the chicken and broth back up to boiling. Add bouillon cubes, salt and pepper (to taste).
- While chicken is coming to a boil, make the dumplings. In a large bowl, using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the shortening and salt into the cup of flour, until shortening is the size of small peas. Add ½ cup HOT water and ½ cup, plus 2 Tablespoons of flour to the mixture. Stir and work the mixture until a soft dough ball forms (firm enough to roll out). Divide dough into 3 equal sized balls, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Generously flour a work surface. Roll each dough ball out (one at a time), sprinkling with flour (if necessary) to keep dough from sticking to work surface. Roll out to about the size of a large pie crust (roll out thin). Cut dough into strips about an inch wide using a pizza cutter or knife. Repeat process for remaining dough balls.
- Drop dumplings a couple at a time into hot boiling chicken/broth mixture until all have been added to pot; add butter, and continue cooking.
- Make a slurry by mixing ¼ cup water with 2 large Tablespoons flour. Stir well to combine, then add to soup pot, and stir well. (this helps to thicken broth a bit).
- Cook an additional 10 minutes on high to fully cook dumplings.
- Taste test broth, and add additional salt and pepper, if desired.
- Ladle hot soup into bowls, serve, and enjoy (especially with crusty french bread on the side!)
Notes
If you are pressed for time, you can always start with store bought chicken broth (cook the chicken in water/drain, THEN use broth in pot), and can also use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken to get the chicken from, BUT I prefer to make it the way I have posted it, as it is far less expensive... but, hey... whatever works, right?
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