Southern Style Chicken & Dumplings

The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are turning and that leads to heartier meals, posted up near the fire watching football or binge watching some cooking show.

This brings us to my version of Southern Style Chicken & Dumplings. My wife has some very strong feelings about certain things - biscuits need to be cut, pot pie has to have a pie shell and dumplings cannot be drop dumplings - only rolled dumplings will do, especially for Chicken & Dumplings.

I'm a bit more agnostic in my stance - I didn't grow up with strong beliefs here. While my family mostly used European style drop dumplings, they weren't pros at it. No one in my family ever sat around and debated the virtues of strip versus drop dumplings like Jenny and I have. Take from that what you will.

This Southern Style Chicken & Dumplings is amazing - I had the family over and they annihilated most of the pot in between heaping mouthfuls of praise and dumplings. I'll take it. 

Winner winner chicken dinner indeed.

Author

Brian Leigh

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

1 hours

Servings

8

Category

Entree

Cuisine

Americana

Ingredients

• 2 lb whole chicken, deskinned and parceled
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp smoked salt, added in pinches
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp Somethin’ to Cluck About
• Water to cover
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp smoked salt
• ⅓ cup butter, cold
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp Somethin’ to Cluck About

Directions

1. Parcel out the chicken, breaking it down into smaller pieces. I do this by removing the spine, then the thighs, wings, cutting out the breast meat and breaking the ribcage into two pieces. Or just use skin on chicken thighs.
2. Remove the skin on the chicken pieces, dry and cut into smaller pieces.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, add a tbsp of olive oil and bring it up to a shimmer.
4. Add the chicken pieces to the pot, specifically the skin, the keel, gizzards, wing flats and tips. Hold the breasts, thighs and legs for later. Let the chicken sautee for a minute to add some color, then reduce the heat to medium low, adding salt and a half cup of water.
5. Let that cook for about 10 minutes to render the fat and chicken flavor from the bird. Remove the chicken and discard.
6. Add the diced onion, celery and carrots to the pot, stirring to pickup the fond. Add a layer of salt and let sweat for a minute or until the onion begins to go translucent.
7. Stir in the red wine vinegar, allowing the vinegar to cook for approximately 30 seconds before adding water until two thirds of the pot is full and stir. Be sure to scrape all the fond off the bottom of the pot and bring to a simmering boil.
8. Add the deskinned thighs, legs, breasts and wings to the pot and let cook for approximately 20 minutes.
9. Remove the chicken and set aside to cool for shredding.
10. Into a pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp butter and cook until foaming.
11. Stir in 1 tbsp of flour and cook until the an off blond color. The flour smell should be gone and it should smell toasty.
12. Whisk in 1 cup of heavy cream in stages.
13. Whisk this roux into the broth and bring to a simmering boil.
14. In a large bowl, add 2 cups all purpose flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp smoked salt and 1 tbsp Somethin’ To Cluck About, whisking to combine.
15. Cut in ⅓ cup cold butter until the mixture resembles wet sand.
16. Stir in 1 cup milk, folding to combine. Add more flour if the dough is too wet. Ideally, the dough should be tacky and not sticky. If dough is left on your hands while mixing, its too wet.
17. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.
18. Cut the dough into strips and then into approximately 1 inch pieces and set aside.
19. Taste the broth and see if it needs more seasoning. Add salt if necessary.
20. Into the boiling broth, slowly add the dumplings one at a time. This will ensure nice, fluffy dumplings that aren’t going to stick together. Cap and let cook for 20 minutes.
21. Add the shredded chicken to the pot, stirring to combine. Cap and let cook for another 10 minutes.
22. Serve hot and enjoy!