Comfort Food For Cold Weather – Chicken And Dumplings Top The List Of Favorites
The next time you’re with a bunch of people who love food like you do, ask them what their favorite comfort food is. I’m guessing you’ll hear quite a few votes for chicken and dumplings among the food lovers. Even though many chicken recipes are comforting, there is still nothing like a big pot of chicken and dumplings to warm the heart and soul – and to make you want to take a little sleepy time!
Recipes for chicken and dumplings vary a great deal from person to person, and family to family. It all depends on what you learned growing up or where you live. Let’s just look at a couple ways that we differ in our favorite chicken and dumplings recipes.
Starting with the base for the recipe – the pot of chicken. Some folks swear that chicken and dumplings is no more than chicken soup with dumplings on top. This is one variety that is very well regarded, and very delicious, indeed. Simply taking your favorite chicken soup recipe and mixing up a batch of dumplings to drop on top is a great way to ensure your dish will be well loved by the whole family, since they already love your chicken soup!
A creamy stew-like chicken and dumplings can be made if you prefer. Once the chicken in cooked through, it’s removed from the bones and returned to the pot. Then additional broth or water is added, plus milk, cream, sour cream, or evaporated milk, and any vegetables you might want. This chicken stew is now your base for the dumplings. When the base is brought back up to a slow boil, you add the dumplings and cook as you like. You have a thick, creamy dish that is different from a chicken soup style.
You can also choose to make an oven baked version. You begin by baking chicken parts in a Dutch oven until they are tender. Then you remove the Dutch oven and place it on the stove top. You’ll add your vegetables with broth or water and cook until the vegetables are almost tender, then drop in your dumplings. This adds a great oven roasted flavor to the chicken and dumplings dish and some find the browning of the chicken more desirable than stewing the chicken. You’ll serve this with the cut up chicken pieces left intact; not deboned and shredded, much like serving a pot roast with veggies and potatoes on the side.
The subject of dumplings could be exhausting. We tend to take our dumplings quite seriously. However, some prefer to speed up the process and swear by the simple store bought biscuit, cut up and dropped into the chicken pot. Others prefer to whip up a simple dumpling with basic ingredients like flour, eggs, oil, salt, and ice water. You can even make dumplings with just flour, salt, and ice water. You can also make them a bit fancy with the addition of seasonings, cheese, and herbs.
No matter what you use, the trick for making good dumplings is in the cooking method itself. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule to follow about cooking good dumplings. You’ll find recipes that call for cooking the dumplings covered and uncovered. You’ll find recipes that call for boiling the mixture and some for simmering slowly. No matter what you choose, the results will be a labor of love, and therefore delicious!
As you develop your own personal favorite chicken and dumplings recipes, don’t fret about how each recipe differs so much. Like many comfort foods, this is another dish that most likely was created out of trial and error and with the food in supply during a cold, dark winter’s day. After every attempt at making this much loved dish, you’ll be able to look at a whole new collection of recipes for chicken and dumplings that were created by you and you alone! Enjoy!
Gather up your family for some delicious chicken and dumplings tonight for dinner! Check out even more homemade chicken recipes that are simple to make but will give your dinner table a real homemade feel, and taste!
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