Adventure #10: Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

            Last weekend I completed adventure #10 by myself. Thanksgiving was approaching and I was in the mood for something warm and traditional, so I decided to make homemade chicken and dumplings. I was a little bit nervous for this adventure, but this is what happened.

As usual, I began this adventure with step one, shopping. For this particular recipe I was lacking just two ingredients. This made me extremely happy since some of the adventures have been a tad pricy for a college student such as myself. Nevertheless, I set off for the store in search of chicken broth and a rotisserie chicken. Both of these items were easy finds, so step one took me less than thirty minutes.

The complete list of ingredients is as follows

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
2 quarts chicken broth
3 cups cooked chicken
 

            After completing step one, I moved onto step two, cooking. The first part of this step was to make the dumplings. This is the part that had me feeling a little nervous. When I think of dumplings, I always picture a little old grandma making them from scratch and of course having them turn out delicious. For this reason, I wanted to make the perfect dumplings that tasted just like a grandma had made them.

            I began this step by combining the flour, baking powder, salt, butter, and milk in a medium bowl. These ingredients formed the dough which I then placed on a heavily floured surface. Using a rolling pin, I rolled the dough into a thin square. I then used a pizza cutter to make 2”x2” squares. These, of course, were the dumplings.

            At first I was worried that I had possibly made the dumplings too thin, but I decided to just go with it and see how they turned out in the end. I used a floured spatula to pick up the dumplings and place them on a floured plate. I then set them aside and continued cooking.

 

 

 

            I brought the 2 quarts of chicken broth to a boil and added the dumplings one at a time. I allowed them to cook for 20 minutes and then added the chicken while turning off the heat. I let this set for a few minutes so that the broth could thicken. The recipe didn’t call for this, but I added a little salt and pepper to the chicken and dumplings and then decided that the dish was ready to serve.

            Although I was nervous for this adventure, it was actually pretty simple and turned out well. My family gladly ate the chicken and dumplings, and my dad even went back for seconds. I’m not sure if they tasted as if a grandma had made them, but the fact that my dad had seconds was all the proof I needed to claim that adventure #10 was a success!

 

 

The complete recipe for homemade chicken and dumplings can be found here http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/11/homemade-chicken-and-dumplings/