Easy Chicken N Dumplin’s

I am a sucker for a good bowl/plate of dumplin’s, with chicken or without, they are a one of my favorites.

If I could only find a way to keep them from from effecting my waist line they might appear on my menu with a little more frequency…

The great thing about this recipe if it is one that you can throw together in about 30 minutes and then leave it to simmer about 20 minutes longer and you are done.

You can always go the complete home made from scratch version where you make your own broth and such but this particular recipe is intended to be quick and still taste great!

Serve this up all by itself or throw in some fresh veggies on the side like this Souther Fried Okra or Green Beans for a delicious meal! You can also leave the chicken out of this meal if you want it as a side dish rather than a full dinner. Either way it is pretty easy. Here is what you will need to whip up a batch tonight:

3 large chicken breasts (frozen or thawed, or pull cooked rotisserie chicken off the bone)
2, 32oz containers of chicken broth of choice

For the dumplin’s:

2 and a half cups all purpose flour (plus more to roll the dough out)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 and a quarter teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

To start off, dump the broth into a large pot and add raw chicken (if you are using cooked chicken, wait a little bit to put your broth on the heat). Bring broth with chicken to a boil and reduce to keep it at a simmer.

While the chicken is cooking, add flour, salt, and baking powder to a mixing bowl and give them a little stir to disperse.

Add about half of the milk into the flour mixture and stir to make a dough. Add an additional tablespoon of milk at a time to form a dough about the consistence of biscuit dough. If you add too much milk you can add a tablespoon of flour at a time to get it right.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the broth and set aside to cool. Strain the “gunk” and ‘scum” out of the broth. This comes from the chicken fat dissolving as it cooks. If you need to, add a little water to the broth to bring it back to the approximate level it was when you first dumped the broth into the pot.

Flour a clean, dry surface. Place the dough on the flour and sprinkle a little more on top.

Roll out dough to about a quarter inch… or if you don’t have a rolling pin, pat it out with your hand like I did…

Using a pizza cutter, or a knife, cut the dough into half inch squares and carefully drop it into the simmering broth.

Tip: once you cut the dough, separate the pieces relatively quickly. If you leave them sitting there like I did when I took pictures, they start to stick together again and you might need to re-cut them or pull them apart. 

Stir the dumplin’s every few minutes since they tend to float up to the top.  You want to make sure they cook on all sides.

While the dumplin’s are cooking chop up/shred the chicken and add it back to the pot.

Allow to simmer approximately 20 minutes or until broth is at your desired consistency. Depending on how much extra flour was on the dumplings from when you rolled them out, the broth might end up at a different consistency.

Tip: If you want a thicker broth. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to 1 cup of cold water and stir until flour is dissolved. Add half of the mixture and stir. Wait 2-3 minutes to give it time to thicken before you add more. Remember to allow the broth to simmer at least 3 minutes after adding the last bit of flour to allow time for it to cook and keep it from tasting like raw flour. 

 Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!!