Making Chicken and Dumplings Like Grandma Made

A lot of people make chicken and dumplings using can biscuits for dumpling dough, or using flour tortillas. A slightly better version is the new frozen dumpling dough that people use because they say they save them time. These dumplings may be alright but if you want a pan of excellent dumplings you need to make them the way that grandma made them.

You need to get a chicken and put it in a big stock pot to boil. You need at least a five quart pot to get the right amount of broth going. You need to fill that pot two thirds of the way up with water, and then add a little salt, a little black pepper, and a couple of chicken bouillon cubes. Grandma never would have added that bouillon but she also would have started with a chicken that she had one of the boys go out in the back yard and kill. Her chicken meat would have had a stronger flavor and therefore would have made a tastier broth.

Once you have cooked the bird until it is completely done you need to remove it from the broth and turn the fire out that is under the pot. You need to allow that meat to cool off before you can pull it off of the bone and put it back in the pot. Once the meat is cool make sure you pick it off the bone and put it in your pot. Do not put any skin or fat in the pot.

Now you can mix up the dough for your dumplings. You will need about:

i) 2 cups all purpose flour
ii) 1/8 tsp of salt
iii) 2 Tbsp of baking powder
iv) 1 tsp of parsley flakes
v) ½ tsp of black pepper

Mix all of these dry ingredients together and then add a ¼ cup of clean white cooking grease or lard. Grandma would have used lard but we can do things a little more heart healthy and still have a great flavor. You will need to take a fork and cut the grease into the flour mixture until the bowl looks like all of the grease is mashed into the flour in very small pieces. Once you have done this you will need to add about 1Tbsp of the hottest water you can stand and mix the dough by hand. You want the dough to all stick together so if you add more water do it in small drops.

Once the dough is right it will pull away from the sides of the bowl. You are ready to put some flour on the counter and roll out those dumplings. Bring the broth to a boil and drop the dough into the boiling liquid. Once all of the dumplings are in pour about 1/3 cup of milk into the pot and turn out the fire. Enjoy these dumplings with a nice pan of cornbread.

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