Home Cook: Chicken with Rosemary Dumplings for a Cozy Fall Dinner
Recently a friend of ours was very sick and could only manage to eat soups and other miscellaneous liquid-based foods. Knowing that some day this friend might return the favor in a time of need, we cleared our schedule and dedicated a week to cooking their meals, making tea, and countless hours of movie-watching companionship.
Throughout the week we made enough soup to feed an army and slowly worked our way to solid ground, ending with chicken and dumplings on our last day of stepping in as mom. Granted, we had to leave the dumplings out this time around (as shown) since they were just still too solid, but for lack of better term, we're going to refer to this dish as is and include the recipe for how we would typically make it, under normal circumstances.
Chicken and dumplings could have not been a more fitting dish for us to make; it's a meal that our mother made repeatedly throughout our childhood when we were home sick with the flu or just having a shitty bad day as a teenager. Our distinct memories of eating bowlfuls of this dish while swaddled in blankets on the couch are just as prevalent as those that were spent sharing a conversation at the dinner table while eating this family staple. Before every one of our college visits home for the holidays, this is the dish that we would request. For us, it is a meal that embodies the idea of comfort and what it means to be home.
Chicken and dumplings is also an easy dish to make; it takes about an hour, but after you've added all of your ingredients, it'll pretty much cook itself. Not to mention that it's a one pot meal--always a bonus for our small apartment and even smaller kitchenette. To make your life even easier, we'd recommend buying a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to shred, but if you feel compelled to bake or roast the chicken beforehand, we're sure it will be excellent. Overall, it is a great dish for a Wednesday dinner for two (and plenty of lunch leftovers) or a Sunday dinner with a close group of friends.
We like to thicken it and add the resulting stew over mashed potatoes, but this is optional. You can also add a wide variety of veggies, though we like to keep it uncomplicated with a simple mirepoix. The dumplings are extremely quick and easy to make. (And we'll admit it's quite fun to watch them change rapidly from a glob of flour and baking powder to a ball of deliciousness.) And if you're not a huge fan of rosemary, feel free to replace it with thyme; we have no doubt that it will be just as good.
Chicken with Rosemary Dumplings
As adapted from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook
Ingredients:
- A tab of unsalted butter
- About three lbs. of cooked chicken
- 4 large carrots, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 3 large celery stalks, chopped into 1/4-inch thick slices
- 1 medium sweet or yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup and 2 Tbs. of all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. of baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. of chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp. of crumbled dried rosemary
- 1 tsp. of salt
- About 30 oz. of chicken broth
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups of milk
Preparation:
In a pot or Dutch oven, heat butter over medium high until melted. Add carrots, celery and onion and saute until soft. Add the chicken broth and shredded chicken and bring the stew to a simmer on medium to high heat.
Meanwhile, begin preparing your dumplings. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, baking powder, rosemary and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. In a cup with a fork, beat the egg with 1/2 cup of milk. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just blended.
Drop your dumpling mixture by rounded tablespoons into the simmered stew. Let it continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
In cup, blend remaining 2 tablespoons of flour with remaining 1 cup of milk until smooth and stir it into the broth mixture. Heat to boiling over high heat for one minute to thicken the stew.
*The dumplings can also be made using Bisquick and corn starch can be substituted for thickening the broth.
