Chicken 'n Dumplins

Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken, remove chicken and dice
1 box chicken stock
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 stalk of celery, diced
1 tsp. garlic (fresh minced or powdered)
1 tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
flour (approx. 2 1/2 cups)
salt and pepper to taste
Lemon pepper
Seasoning salt

Can you believe I lived in Kentucky for 4 years and never had "Chicken 'n Dumplins."  A crime.  We really made an effort to dive into all of the good Southern cooking that is to be had there.  And believe me, there is a lot of good Southern cooking in KY!

But I digress, and I need to be very careful because when I talk about Kentucky I miss it so much and want to move back.  That place holds the dearest of memories for me.  Okay, really.  I need to stop.....

So back to the Chicken 'n Dumplins.

I found this one in the same recipe book as the Creme Brulee French Toast.  That's turning out to be quite a great cookbook.  And I just noticed that there is a Christmas edition of it out.

I was having a hard time picturing what it was supposed to look like, and regrettably this cookbook doesn't have but a few pictures, so I googled Chicken 'n Dumplins to see pictures.  I also looked at a bunch of other versions of the recipe, and incorporated some of the things into this recipe.  For example, this one didn't call for celery, but most of the others did so I added it.

Here's my version.

Fill pot with box of chicken stock (all but 1 cup which you will uses later to make dumplings) and cream of chicken soup.  Bring to a boil, then add diced celery, diced chicken, garlic.  Allow to continue boiling softly while you prepare dumplings.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup of hot (not boiling) reserved broth, 1 tsp. salt, beaten egg, and enough flour to create the consistency of bread dough.  Flour a rolling pin, then countertop, and the top of the dough.  Roll the dough out until paper thin (I like mine a little thicker).  Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into 1 inch by 2 inch pieces.  Drop the dumplings one by one into the softly boiling both.  Stir very gently. (If there isn't adequate broth to do this because you added a lot of chicken, just add more.)  Add salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and seasoning salt to taste.  Bring back to a full boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Cover the pot, turn the heat off, and don't peek until you are ready to serve.  Serve within 30 minutes.  (Note from cookbook:  if you keep the heat on, the dumplings tend to stick to the bottom of the pan.)

Comfort food on a cold day, for sure.

And it was cold here today!  Summer, I sure do miss you!  xoxo