Welcome to What’s For Dinner!
When stay at home began, one of the things I decided to buy was flour. Risky for me, because as a bariatric patient, carbs are frowned upon, as my new tiny stomach can only hold 5oz, and I need protein above all. But adding sensible amounts to a high protein meal, as long as I’m getting my protein and the calorie count is relatively low (between 200 and 300 calories per meal), I can manage. So, I decided to try chicken and dumplings—an ultimate comfort food.
So, where to begin? As usual, I combed the internets looking for recipes. This is the one I based my recipe on. Chef John makes everything look easy.
So anyway, the first time I tried this, I used chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. Here you can see the veg and water at the beginning stages, just like on the video:
I did the simmering, removed the thighs, and reserved some of the fat and made the thickener. In subsequent efforts, I’ve save the fat from a simple baked thigh recipe. And seriously, it’s the best baked chicken I’ve had. But anyway, I made the dough. The first time, I used all-purpose flour, because that’s what I had. I didn’t add the leaveners to make it “self rising”. I added the sour cream, but instead of milk, I used chicken stock. I also added some dijon mustard for extra flavor. I seasoned the batter with dried dill and freeze dried chives.
I added the batter to the stew after seasoning and adding back the chicken, and let it simmer. One thing I do is add back the skin. I love the skin, even boiled. I did not get the result I was expecting.
As you can see, the dumplings turned into something more like kluski kładzione, or drop noodles. Very Polish. Just like Mom used to make. And one of my favorite things she would cook. So this was the BEST surprise. Making them this way is a way to remember my mom. I told my brother about it, and he misses them too. So when I visit for Christmas, I’ll cook a batch for his family.
The second time I made this, I had some boneless chicken breasts, so I poached them the night before, and saved the chicken stock I cooked them in. I then used my chowder method—sauteeing the vegetables in a lot of butter, adding flour to make a roux, then adding the liquid I cooked the chicken breasts in. It made a thick chowder like soup. I used self rising flour and the result was the picture at the top of the diary. Because I’m a bariatric patient, I had to break up those biscuit dumplings, and as a result what happened was they essentially crumbled into the soup. Nice, but I prefer the other way. I’ve also experimented with adding other vegetables. Like a can of corn (which I quite like), or mushrooms, or whatever. So, whenever I make this, I get plenty of protein through the chicken, and the dumplings I can make small enough so I get at least one small one per serving. This breaks down into almost 20 5oz servings. Enough meals to last me a week.
So what’s for dinner at your house tonight? For me, it’s a balsamic-herb-garlic marinated skirt steak. A couple days worth of meals right there.