M: When it comes to comfort food, few meals top the silky smooth embrace of chicken and dumplings. The one pot Sunday dinner of chicken stew pillowed by supple, puffy biscuit dough nestled and wet-cooked on its surface. The dumplings soaking up the broth, giving heft, texture and weight to the dish and helping stretch a little bit of chicken to feed a hungry table. No drama here. So when chatting with an NC native about this one, how do I draw the phrase “go to war over it”? The debate is a matter of dropping or rolling. Dumplings come in many forms, but in the case of chicken and dumplings, this seems to be the core debate. Do you drop the sticky dough in by the lumpy spoonful into that bubbling broth or is it first rolled flat, sliced into strips and gingerly arranged?
“It’s got to be rolled out. Flat as you can get it. So flat you can read a newspaper through it. Practically chicken and pasta.” I’m told this is a particularly Eastern Carolina attitude. I can go either way on this front. While I loved the puffy structure and give of these dumplings, there is something to be said for the semi-shapeless, knotty glob. Debate all you want. Once again, the right way has a whole lot to do with how grandma did it. And while you’re at it, pork lard is fine, but you’ve got to throw some of that chicken fat in there if you want those dumplings done right.
K: Oh, for the love of pete, if I wanted chicken noodle soup, I’d make chicken noodle soup, and I wouldn’t call it chicken and DUMPLINGS. I am generally in agreement with most things Carolinian, my people being who they are (South Georgian by way of North Carolina) and me having a firm belief in regional unity and all that, but….seriously? A rolled dumpling? That’s a noodle. These were extremely fluffy, tasty noodles, and I loved them very much, but I have a very hard time calling them dumplings – which should CLEARLY be sticky dough dropped into boiling stew.
Now, having stating which side of the dumpling battleground I cheerfully inhabit, I will say that someone in my family (I do SO wish I could remember who) made a dish exceedingly similar to this, only they used a LOT more black pepper, and didn’t cut up the dough. The dish was always made in a deep ‘chicken fryer’ type cast iron skillet, and at the last minute the thinly-rolled dumpling dough was laid in it’s entirety right over the top of the boiling stew, which was then covered with a lid and quickly tossed into a hot oven for a very brief finish. This combination of boil/bake made for an odd, but spectacularly good hybrid. Think chicken and dumplings meets chicken pot pie…only….better than either, somehow. I haven’t had that in longer than I am willing to admit, on account of how old it would make me seem, but now that it’s in my head, I can’t let it go. I suspect I will have to make this again very soon, just so I can do us up some C&D/Pot Pie Frankenstein stew.
Hmmm….now that I think about it, there IS a ridiculously large bowl of leftover turkey in the fridge, and the turkey stock has even been made already….
Yeah, I’ll see y’all later. I’ve got Turkey Frankenstein Stew to make.
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Recipe: Chicken and Dumplings
Summary: We liked this recipe a lot. Straightforward. Classic. The stew thickened up very nicely, making this a hearty, comforting meal that is extremely flavorful while remaining uncomplicated. Our primary adaptation to the recipe was to move the stock making portion of the directions off of the stove top and into the pressure cooker to speed it up while jacking up the flavor. ( K: Oh, OK, I added a LOT more freshly ground pepper. I wouldn’t say that I doubled the amount called for? But I have a bit of a love affair with pepper, and there is every chance that I might have done that even if I don’t want to say it. Go ahead, be liberal with your pepper grinder. )
This would also be a great use for all that leftover Thanksgiving turkey that you can no longer bear to see, much less eat.
Adapted from The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook.
Ingredients
Stock
- 4 Lb Stewing Chicken
- 2 Ribs Celery, chopped
- 2 Carrots, chopped
- 1 Large Onion, quartered
- 2 Cloves Garlic
- 12 Peppercorns
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 tsp Dried Thyme
- 1 T Butter
Dumplings
- 2 c Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 T Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 4 T Lard
- 1/2 -2/3 c Milk
Stew
- 1 Medium Onion, chopped
- 2 Large Carrots, peeled and sliced (K: I also added golden beets for a more sweet/earthy flavor profile.)
- 3 c Chicken, chopped
- Salt and Pepper
- Green Onions, sliced (for garnish)
Instructions
Stock
- Combine chicken, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme and butter in a stockpot and cover with cold water.
- Bring to boil and reduce to simmer until chicken is fully cooked (about 30 minutes).
- Remove chicken from pot, pull meat from bones and return skin and bones to pot.
- Return stock to boil until reduced to about 4 cups then strain and discard solids.
Dumplings
- Sift flour, salt, baking powder and pepper together.
- Work lard into flour until mix is crumbly.
- Add milk to flour to form stiff dough then roll out to 1/8″ on a well floured surface.
- Cut into 1×1-1/2″ dumplings.
Stew
- Add onion and carrots to stock and simmer at low boil until soft (about 15 minutes).
- Tear chicken into bite sized pieces and add to pot.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Gently drop dumplings into pot and cover 5-8 minutes.
- Serve hot, garnished with green onions.
Mark
November 29, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Mick the holy grail of Eastern North Carolina Chicken Stew aint Chicken and Dumplins ( is there a g ?) it’s Chicken and Pastry; cut full of the chicken fat and rolled thin and cut into strips that are tossed into the pot at the last minute. give me a bowl and a pepper shaker and to tell you the truth I don’t really care if any of the chicken made it into the bowl, just give stew and pastry. That’s good eating! Noodle soup…humph.
Lisa | Dust with Flour
December 6, 2011 at 9:31 am
In north Louisiana where I was raised, dumplings are most definitely rolled, then cut into squares or pinched off before going into the pot. The dumplings then soak up so much of the broth that the dish does not need to be served in soup bowls, but often put directly on a plate.
Mike
December 6, 2011 at 12:35 pm
I’m adamant about my dumplings. They absolutely must be the dropped kind.
Unless they aren’t.
Forgo the thyme and try some mace, a tip I read from James Beard.