I made a BIG pot of chicken and dumplings Sunday and they ate it all!!!!! That being said, I usually have enough left over for me and SO for the next night.
Me, my SO, my mom, my son and his girlfriend ate it all along with 18 fresh biscuits and a batch of cranberry sauce I make from scratch (grannys recipe)
They all commented how great it was. The only thing I did different was I used two fat old hens instead of one. I had extra culls this year so I cooked two up. Usually I use one hen and then a fryer, we like lots of meat in ours.
so my recipe,
two fat old hens
several carrots, ends cut off, I do not cut up or peel, just drop in pot
several celery stalks, again ends cut off, drop whole stalk in pot
half a onion diced fine, so you can' see it after it cooks
salt, pepper and I sneak a little basil in.
I cook all the above together until the leg meat sperates from the bone on the hen (you can remove the veggies sooner if the hen takes a while to cool)
Once the meat separates from the bone I turn the heat off and let the hen sit in the pot a few hours, remove, let it cool and pull meat from bone and cut up. Granny told me this adds more flavor by letting the hen rest a while in the pot, not sure if it is true but I do it anyway.
Once your about an hour or so from eating heat the broth to boil and add dumplings and cook until done. Add meat after dumplings are cooked so you don't cook them down to strings.
I did cheat this time and did not make the dumplings from scratch, I bought the ones in the frozen section at the store.
My mom an old timer didn't say a word about the dumplings, I think she thought they were from scratch, honestly you can't really tell the difference. Except I usually add yellow food coloring to mine to give them a more yellow color, the ones from the store are basically white.
Me, my SO, my mom, my son and his girlfriend ate it all along with 18 fresh biscuits and a batch of cranberry sauce I make from scratch (grannys recipe)
They all commented how great it was. The only thing I did different was I used two fat old hens instead of one. I had extra culls this year so I cooked two up. Usually I use one hen and then a fryer, we like lots of meat in ours.
so my recipe,
two fat old hens
several carrots, ends cut off, I do not cut up or peel, just drop in pot
several celery stalks, again ends cut off, drop whole stalk in pot
half a onion diced fine, so you can' see it after it cooks
salt, pepper and I sneak a little basil in.
I cook all the above together until the leg meat sperates from the bone on the hen (you can remove the veggies sooner if the hen takes a while to cool)
Once the meat separates from the bone I turn the heat off and let the hen sit in the pot a few hours, remove, let it cool and pull meat from bone and cut up. Granny told me this adds more flavor by letting the hen rest a while in the pot, not sure if it is true but I do it anyway.
Once your about an hour or so from eating heat the broth to boil and add dumplings and cook until done. Add meat after dumplings are cooked so you don't cook them down to strings.
I did cheat this time and did not make the dumplings from scratch, I bought the ones in the frozen section at the store.
My mom an old timer didn't say a word about the dumplings, I think she thought they were from scratch, honestly you can't really tell the difference. Except I usually add yellow food coloring to mine to give them a more yellow color, the ones from the store are basically white.
