Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings

old fashion chicken and dumplins with fresh parsley sprinkled on top

5 from 3 votes

Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe for Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings will take your right back to your grandmother's table at least 40 years ago. Simple and delicious.

Prep Time1 45

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 15

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Main dish

Keyword: chicken and dumplings, old fashion chicken and dumplings

Servings: servings

Calories: 437kcal

Author: Wendi Spraker

Cost: $20

Equipment

1 bowl
measuring cups and spoons
1 spatula
1 dough board
1 Rolling pin
1 Stock Pot
1 stove top

Ingredients

1 small chicken or 8 pieces of chicken white or dark meat according to taste (see substutions for other)
3 stalks of celery – large chop
2 medium onions – large chop
3 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 ¼ cup Bisquick for making the dumplings
2/3 Cup Whole Milk for making the dumplings
½ Cup Whole Milk for adding to the liquid at the end of cooking
½ Cup Heavy Cream for adding to the liquid at the end of cooking
½ stick of unsalted butter
Parsley – minced

Instructions

Place chicken in a 6-8 quart stock pot and fill with enough water to fill within 3 inches of the top of the stock pot.
Add Celery, onion, bay leaves, salt and pepper to the water.
Place on stove top on medium-high and bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Simmer until chicken meat is falling off of the bone. Add water during cooking if water level decreases below half of the stock pot
Once meat is fully cooked and falling off of the bone, Using a large slotted spoon or tongs, remove all of the chicken, celery and onion from the stock pot to a platter (keep all of the water in the stock pot) and allow chicken to cool until it is cool enough to touch. Remove all of the meat from the bones. Shred into bite sized pieces. Discard the bones and skin and any large chunks of onion and celery. Remove the bay leaves and discard.
Replace the chicken meat back into the stock pot and set burner temperature on medium. Add garlic to the water.
As the chicken and stock reheat, mix the bisquick and 2/3 Cup milk in a large bowl. Dough will be sticky. Once mixed, turn out onto a heavily floured board and knead (adding more bisquick as needed) until the dough feels slightly rubbery and is no longer sticky. Flour the top of the dough ball and roll out into a large thin (1/8 inch thick) circle. Dough should be about 1/8” thick.
Using a butter knife (turned upside down), cut dough into long strips that are 2 inch wide noodles. Do not let the noodles stick together. Do not worry if there is a lot of extra flour on the noodles – this will only serve to thicken the liquid – which is delicious!
When the chicken stock has reached a full boil, begin adding the noodles one at a time into the boiling stock. The noodles will puff up and float to the surface and may cover the entire surface. Using a wooden spoon, gently push noodles to the side so that you can add more noodles into the space created. Add noodles quickly until all noodles are added. Do Not stir the pot as the noodles will break into small mushy pieces. You CAN use your wooden spoon to gently move them around the pan so that they all see some bubbling action in the pot.
Allow noodles to cook by floating at the top of the boiling stock for several minutes (about 5 minutes) until done. Using a wooden spoon, gently spoon hot broth over the tops of the floating noodles to help them to cook. You will know that they are ready when most of them begin to sink.
The noodles are done when they begin to sink into the broth – gently stir with a wooden spoon. You might want to get one out and test it for doneness (that is what I do). When noodles are done, reduce heat to a slow simmer and add 1/2 Cup milk, cream and butter to the stock pot. Salt and Pepper to taste. Allow the entire pot to simmer for at least 5 minutes after adding the milk and cream. This takes the "milk" taste out of the completed dish. When heated through, serve and garnish with fresh minced parsley.

Video

Notes

Knead the dumplings until they feel stretchy. Don't worry about having too much flour on your board, it just makes the broth thicker.
Add the milk at the end and make sure that it simmers for 5-10 minutes before serving. This extra simmering scalds the milk and keeps it from tasting so milky.
Of course, if you are partial to white meat, you can use just chicken breasts, but the whole chicken (bones and all) adds a lot of flavor to the broth, PLUS, it is less expensive for an entire chicken.
If you prefer to substitute your favorite biscuit recipe for bisquick and milk, be my guest.
Some people prefer carrots and celery in the soup and if that's you, that is fine.
You can try to monkey with the ingredients to make this less calories, less carbs, less whatever your diet is looking for but please remember that you are also changing the recipe and it won't taste the same. Frankly, chicken and dumplings was never meant to be a diet dish of any kind, just enjoy a bowl in moderation and then go outside and enjoy the fresh air. Take a long walk.
- - You'll get the best flavor if you start with a whole chicken or at least bone in chicken. However, this takes more time and you can use a rotisserie chicken if you are pressed for time.
- - You'll want to gently simmer the chicken so that it doesn't become "over done" and then make sure to remove the celery and onions before making the entire dish.
- - Allow the chicken to cool until you can easily handle it. Chicken often stays hot in the center long after it has cooled on the surface.
- - Roll the dumplings out very thin, they puff when you put them in the pot.
- - You want the stock pot at a good firm boil before adding the dumplings because they change the temp of the stock so quickly. As you add the dumplings, carefully hold a space open for them to drop down into the pot using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dumplings are super delicate.
- - When cutting the dumplings, I find it easiest to use a butter knife and hold it upside down. I learned that trick from my grandma!
- - Keep your surface coated well with flour or bisquick so the noodles don't stick to the surface. If some extra flour falls into your stock, that's fine, it will thicken the stock.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Chicken - You can use whole chicken (just cook and pick from bone, remove any skin), bone in pieces (treat the same as whole chicken), boneless skinless chicken or even rotisserie chicken (it will have less flavor but be so much faster, it's your choice, of course).

Bisquick - you can make your own mix of bisquick (6 C flour, 3 Tbs baking powder, 1 Tbs salt, 1 C shortening) or if you want to make chicken and dumplings with flour, simply follow that formula and mix well.

Milk - You can use a milk substitute but often the results won't be as creamy. I use whole milk and lesser percentages are ok but again, results will be less creamy.

Cream - You can use milk or evaporated milk, but the results will be less creamy.

Butter - butter substitute works fine.

Onion/Celery - you can use onion powder and celery seed instead for flavor 1 Tbs onion powder, 2 tsp celery seed.

Nutrition