The Chicken and Dumpling Experiment

Yesterday was a cool day and I wanted to make something warm. I knew I had a whole chicken in the fridge that I needed to use so I decided to make Chicken and Dumplings. Is this a Southern thing? Not sure, but I remember it as one of the things my grandmother "Ma" made best.

I decided to call my Aunt Tootsie to get some advice. She, being Ma's daughter, can make Chicken and Dumplings just like Ma. As we were talking, Tootsie said "wouldn't it be nice to have some of Ma's chicken and dumplings right now?" I agreed, yes, indeed it would.

I went ahead and cooked the chicken and used the broth as the base.





To make the dough, Tootsie told me to use self-rising flour, a "handful" of shortening, and warm water. I did that and the dough had a wonderful texture and rolled out perfectly.





The one thing I will change next time is to not roll the dumplings so thin. Tootsie told me to cook the dumplings in the chicken broth at a soft boil, not boiling really hard, and be sure not to stir the dumplings, lest I end up with one huge dumpling.



After the dumplings cooked, I added the cooked chicken and diced carrots that had cooked with the chicken. The taste was very much like Ma's and my husband said it tasted very much like his grandmother's. He being from North Carolina, I knew from many conversations on this subject that his grandmother cooked much like mine had.

Making Chicken and Dumplings is one of those dishes that will improve with much practice, since I know Ma must have made this dish about a million times. That's why hers were so awesome.