Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

I'm on my 50th post y'all!!!

 

So this past weekend, I decided to tackle the ole' chicken and dumplings.  Cody's nanny's are the bomb! I never ate them until I had hers and have always been scared to make them or even order them out.  Crazy, I know!

 

So I tried the recipe out of my new Jamie Deen cookbook.  The recipe looked super simple and it was, even the homemade dumplings!

 

The recipe called for a whole chicken, but Ingles had their split fryers on sale so that's what I used.  I had probably just a little over 4 lbs and into my big, red pot it went.

 

I also added carrots, celery, onions, thyme, black pepper and salt.  The recipe tells you how much of each to use, but I figure this is what is going to make your broth taste like anything so I added more than the recipe called for.  I filled the pot with water to make sure the chicken was good and covered.  I let this cook for a good hour and a half.

 

Once the chicken was cooked, I took it out of the broth and let it cool.

 

 

In the meantime, I drained the broth and vegetables so all that was left was the broth.

 

 

I had to go run some errands while the chicken was cooling so I made the dumplings when I returned.  The recipe says to make the dumplings while the chicken is cooking.  It's 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 3/4 cup cold water mixed together until the dough comes together.  Knead it into a ball and then roll it out to 1/8 inch thickness.  Y'all I am bad at measurements & I didn't grab a ruler to see how thick it was, I just rolled with it! Let the dough rest for 30 minutes after it's rolled out and then cut into 1 inch squares.

 

 

While the dough was resting, I shredded my chicken.

 

 

Once the 30 minutes was up and I cut my squares, you drop the squares into the simmering broth.  Once the dumplings are cooked, they float to the top.  I added my chicken and let simmer for 20 minutes longer until the soup thickened. 

 

 

Y'all they were good and Cody liked it, but he could tell I was not satisfied.  They are not nanny's and he said I have set my standards too high and that is the honest to God truth.  I will get her recipe and ask her for advice on how she makes them and I will test again.   They can only get better!

 

Well I am trying another new recipe tonight so we shall see how this one goes!