Chicken and dumplings

One of my fondest food memories is a Methodist church dinner which had the best chicken and dumplings I've ever eaten. I was young and I don't remember where it was -- probably Pittsburg. I try new recipes now and again in the hopes of finding something as good, but haven't had any luck so far. But that's OK -- it's fun trying.

This recipe from Andrea Reusing's Cooking in the Moment has a lot of steps but is basically pretty simple. The result is quite tasty, though not as great as that Methodist church dinner in my memory. One is tempted to think you could get as good a result with fewer steps. She recommends a real laying hen, but I have no idea where you'd find one of those. I used one of the kosher chickens from WF.

Put the chicken (including neck, gizzard and heart, if available) in a 6-qt pot and cover with 3 qts water. Bring to a boil. Start skimming off scum as it gets to a simmer and continue skimming and simmering for 5 min. Then add a carrot, a celery stalk, an onion cut in half and an unpeeled head of garlic cut in half crosswise, as well as 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black peppercorns. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 to 15 min.

You're supposed to pull out the chicken and cut out the breast meat at this point, which is supposed to be done and just pink at the bone. My chicken breasts were still partly raw so I put it back in for another 10 min. Reusing says to put the chicken back in the pot and cook for a further 20 min. (I shortened because of extended time for the breast meat), then add the dark green top from a large leek and 20 (count 'em!) parsley stems (chop the leaves for garnish) and cook for another 10 min. Remove the chicken, cut off the legs and let cool. Strain the broth and discard the vegetables and chicken carcass. Reusing says you should have 2 qts of broth. I didn't measure, but the end product came out soupier than I like, so maybe I had more than 2 qts or 2 qts is too much. I would reduce or simply siphon off some of the broth. (Though her photo of the dish, shown here, looks about as soupy as mine.)

Make the dumpling batter by whisking together 2 c. flour with 1 Tbl. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 1/2 c. buttermilk and 1 stick (8 Tbl) melted butter. Combine the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon to make (very thick) batter. Add 2 Tbl each of chopped parsley and "thinly sliced" chives (why not say chopped?).

Remove the skin from the chicken, tear the meat from the legs and tear both breast and leg meat into bite size portions. Rinse pot and pour broth back into it. Bring to a boil and put 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery stalks, and the diced white and green parts of that large leek into the broth with 3/4 c. white wine. Cook for 4 min., then add the chicken meat with 1 c. heavy cream. Check seasoning and bring to a simmer.

Form the dumplings with 2 teaspoons and drop them into the simmering stew. Stir around to keep separate. When all the dumplings are in, cover and cook for 5 min. Serve with garnish of chopped parsley and chive batons and plenty of ground pepper.

The chicken takes on a lot of great flavor from the aromatics. The broth is a little thin. Maybe it was just too much but it might help to boost the flavor with a bouillon cube. We made the full recipe so I'm eager to see how it tastes reheated as leftovers.