I suppose the most requested dish that we had for birthdays was chicken and dumplings. It was a recipe that sort of evolved through the years. It may have been popular due to the fact that I never cooked two chickens, no matter how many people we had. If it was a bigger crowd I would just multiply the biscuit recipe that we used for dumplings. It took a while to put in and cook many dumplings, so the smell tantalized for a good while. I think the scramble to get "enough" and some chicken on top of that made it seem as good as the "Turkish Delight" seemed to Edmond.
Since we followed no recipe for the whole process, I never knew if it was going to turn out like soup (requiring a bowl) or if plates would do. It was probably my most prayed over dish. I am much more comfortable using recipes. Also I never "salted to taste". They always added more at the table so I gave up. This all probably sounds involved and hard to make, but it is really straightforward. So here goes a try at a recipe:
Cook one chicken (skin removed) with two or more cups water, depending on the size of your pot.
I like to use a pressure cooker as it takes only 20 minutes under pressure.
Mix 4 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Cut in 2/3 cup butter until it is like coarse cornmeal. Add 1 1/3 cup milk, stirring quickly to form a soft dough.
Lift cooked chicken from pot and get the broth boiling. You will probably need to add water to have a total of about three quarts. Drop balls of dough into boiling broth. I tried to get the new ones to sink under the others. Cook on medium low heat with lid propped on for 30 minutes or so. You can tell when the dumplings look sort of fluffy and done and the broth has thickened. Take the chicken of the bone and cut it in pieces and gently push into the dumplings (without breaking them all up). Enjoy. It is a great dish for cold weather.
Tips: Mine always stuck on the bottom of the pan.
You could half the biscuit recipe and use less broth and get lots of chicken pieces in your bowl!
