Chicken and Dumplings

One of my favorite questions to ask people is: what are the foods you remember eating when you were young?  I love sharing stories about how people live, and there is something special about listening to people tell stories about their food memories.

In our family Mom was very good about making sure family dinner was a common ritual.  Each night we rotated through our favorites: spaghetti with meaty red sauce; chicken baked in the oven with potatoes; or a roast, slow cooked in the crock-pot with delicious aromas enticing us more with every hour. 

Within mom’s rotation, I had my favorite dishes.  One of those dishes was chicken and dumplings.  I loved the way the tender pieces of chicken married with the light gravy, decorated by specks of tiny carrots and peas.  The dumplings, steamed at the surface of the dish, were a satisfying complement to the chicken, gravy, and vegetables.  I would eat the dish with a big glass of milk, and life was good. 

The dinner ritual has stayed with me through the years, and my food repertoire is continually inspired by magazines, blogs, and sharing ideas with other people.  On a recent camping trip I was sifting through a pile of magazines and I was enthralled by the food ideas in Real Simple.  The theme was Modern Family, and they riffed off classic American dishes.  On the very first page was a recipe for chicken and dumplings.  “I am definitely going to make that,” I thought.

About a week later Ariel and I went to Centralia to pick up my dad.  My brother had told us that dad had caught a cold.  As Ariel and I began talking about what we should make for dinner he suggested we make chicken soup.  He told me that his dad swears by chicken soup's medicinal properties.  As we began talking about the soup, my mind shifted back to the chicken and dumplings, so that is what we had. 

The recipe was inspired by Real Simple, as well as a 2011 version of chicken and dumplings on the website Simply Recipes. 

For the chicken you will need:

2 lbs. boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-2 inch pieces

2 Tbsp. butter+2 Tbsp. cooking oil

1 large onion, large-dice

3 carrots cut into ½ in pieces

3 ribs celery cut into ½ in pieces

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup white wine

1 quart chicken stock

2 Tbsp. fresh sage leaves

5 oz. fresh spinach leaves

1 cup frozen peas

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

2 Tbsp. heavy cream

For the dumplings you will need:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. melted butter

¾ cup milk

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

In a large dutch oven heat 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. oil.  Brown the chicken.  Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve it on a plate.  Add the remaining butter and oil and sauté the onion, celery, and carrot.  When the vegetables are soft, add the flour, stirring continuously. 

Whisk in the stock and the wine, and add the sage and the spinach.  Note: the spinach will cook way down, so don’t worry when it fills the whole pot.  Return the chicken to the pot and gently simmer the contents for about 45 minutes.  

For the dumplings: combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the melted butter and milk.  If there are dry spots in the dough, add tiny drops of milk at a time until the dough is completely hydrated.  Fold in the fresh parsley. 

Make sure the stew is at a light simmer.  Drop dumpling dough at approximately a tablespoon at a time into the stew.  Cover the stew for 20 minutes, note: do not lift the lid during that time.  The steam cooks the dumplings, and if the lid is lifted the steam will escape. 

After the 20 minutes, remove the lid and gently stir.  Add the fresh parsley, cream, and peas. Serve in deep bowls with soup spoons.  This is a dish that gets better each day; the leftovers of this stew are wonderful.