One of the best things I ever got from my father was his "chicken and dumplings" recipe. More like a spatzel noodle then what many call dumplings.

The noodles are just a rough batter made with eggs, flour, and parsley. I don't know what is with the parsley but it ain't right without the parsley. Start with a dozen whole eggs beaten and add flour until it is stiff but still moist dough. Stir in half a handful of parsley. Use a wet spoon to drop bits of dough into a pot of boiling water. When they float they are done.... about 5 minutes. Cut a big one in half if you wonder about doneness. Either fish them out or pour off the water. There is not a right size... start with a heaping teaspoon full and adjust to your liking. Spatzel seems to be a very tiny version of these. Some of dad's noodles are big enough that 3-4 make a serving.... depends on how big a hurry he was in.

For the chicken part he boils a whole chicken. After removing the bird he makes a simple gravy with the broth that gets poured over the noodles. Simple gravy as in a couple drops of kitchen bouquet and corn starch water simmered until it thickens.

Many times the meal is over with and the chicken meat is still sitting on the stove. The noodles and gravy are that good. Because the bird was boiled it don't look like much. Skin it and bone it for chili meat or bbq chicken sandwich another day.

Fall off a log simple but don't boil your noodles in the chicken pot or they turn slimey like canned chick and dumplings.

: )
lyra

Here's our favorite:

TAMMY'S CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

2.5-3LB. chicken, cut up
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tsp. salt
2 stalks celery, cut into 1inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
3 c. chicken broth
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 c. cold water
3 Tbsp. flour

In dutch oven or deep skillet, brown chicken in hot butter. Add salt, celery, onion, broth, bayleaf, pepper. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer covered, approx. 30 minutes. Add carrots, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until just about tender. Remove chicken from pan, debone and break into large chunks; return to pan. Mix water and flour, stir into mixture; heat until boils and thickens. Add dumplings.

FLUFFY DUMPLINGS
1.5 c. flour
1 tsp. minced parsley
2 tsp. baking powder
tsp. salt
2/3 c. milk
2 Tbsp. oil
1 egg, slightly beaten

In medium bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Stir in remaining ingredients just until dry ingredients are moistened. Drop dough by Tbspfuls onto hot chicken in boiling stew. Cook covered, 12-15 minutes or until dumplings are fluffy and no longer doughy underneath. MAKES 8-10

Depending on how I feel, I have three different dumpling recipes that I choose from.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Chicken Stew And Dumplings
==========================
4 to 6 Chicken Breasts
(Or a whole chicken with extra pieces)

5 to 6 whole small cooking onions

2 or 3 stalks of celery

2 or 3 potatoes - halved or quartered (Do not use potatoes in stew if making Southern Style dumplings. I make mashed potatoes to serve with Southern style dumplings)

1 clove of garlic

fresh thyme or dried

1 bay leaf

chicken broth
--------------------------------------

Regular Dumplings
-------------------------------------
1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening(butter/margarine or crisco
3/4 to 1 cup of milk

Mix dry ingredients and cut in shortening. Add enough milk to make a soft wet dough. Drop by tablespoon on to the top of stew and cover and simmer on low for about 15 minutes.

--------------------------------------

Southern Style Dumplings
--------------------------------------
2 cups flour
3 Tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of baking powder
Milk

Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter. Add enough milk to make a soft dough. Knead for a minute until smooth and let sit for 1/2 hour. Roll out dough to desired thickness. Dough should be on the thin side. Cut into 1/2 inch strips, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.

Drop into boiling stew and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until noodles are cooked.

--------------------------------------

Parsley Bread Dumplings
=======================
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 slices white bread, quartered
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Combine parsley and bread in processor; whirl until medium
size crumbs. Add 1 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt; process just until combined. Add 1/2 cup milk and butter; process using on-off pulses just until blended. 5 Drop mounded tablespoons of dumpling mixture into stew.

.
Add chicken to a pot and cover with chicken broth or combination of
water and broth.

Add 1 garlic clove, a few sprigs of thyme and bay leaf. Cook for 15
minutes and add whole peeled onions, celery cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
and simmer until onions are tender. Remove Chicken from pot and
separate meat from bones. Add chicken back to pot. If using potatoes
add now.

Now add what ever dumpling recipe you are using and simmer until
dumplings are cooked.

If you like your stew thicker, mix some flour and milk or cream in a
jar and pour into hot stew.

No chicken and dumpling recipe but I've got a great Beef and Noodles recipe posted by Potpie. It's made with homemade noodles so they are more like a dumpling then the processed noodles. If you're interested I will post it.

It supposed to turn bitter cold here for the weekend and dang I am short on beef bones!!

Michelle

My chicken and dumplings are similar to Ann T's "regular" dumplings. The chicken gets boiled then removed from the bone, the broth is seasoned and thickened to a gravy and the meat is returned to the pot. My girls always liked mashed potatoes and fresh bread with this, an "all white carb all the time" kind of meal.

Annie

Attention Mrsafirstein-
I would like your receipe for beef and noodles.
Lois

Pump-toad, it's not my recipe but one that Potpie posted on the Recipe Exchange Forum. It is delicious! My Mom's recipe is similar but she did not save beef bones, she used short ribs instead but always homemade noodles.

Beef and Noodles like Grama used to make (Potpie)

You need some good bones. Steak bones, rib bones, soup bones, and some good stewing meat. And, you need some good chuck roast to chunk into it too.

In a big heavy bottomed pot, add the bones, two cloves of garlic, one or two bay leaves, a whole onion, not peeled but the root end cut clean, that has been cut into a three-way "X". You need to add a couple stalks of celery and some carrots too. Add some thyme if you like the flavor. Add no salt or pepper at this point. Cover and cook at a simmering, not a boil, for about 6 hours. Then, strain the broth off and save it. You can pick the meat off the bones and add it to the broth, or just throw all the bones and simmered gunk away.

Then put the broth back into a clean heavy bottomed pot and add the good chuck meat cut into chunks about 1 inch by 1 inch. Simmer until the meat is tender, about three hours or so. *If you boil the meat, it will get tough. You can add a good quality beef boullion if you like to enchance the flavor and perk it up with the saltiness of the boullion.

All of this can be done in advance and saved in the fridge. Everytime you have a standing rib or a bunch of steak or anything that produced lots of bones and scrap meat, save it or cook it into broth.

Then, when you're ready to make the final dish, cook the chunky broth until it is just at a boil.

Make homemade egg noodles. The recipe is simple. 2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, a pinch of salt, and I like to add a touch of melted butter to my noodles. You can do this really easy in a food processor. Just pulse them until they are holding together. If you need to add any liquid, then add a bit of water, but they should be pretty dry, not a wet dough. (If you want puffier noodles that are really light, then use self rising flour).

Roll the noodles out on a floured surface and after you have a nice thin rectangle or whatever shape, roll it all up into a log roll like you would cinnamon buns. Then, using a really sharp knife cut down the center lengthwise from end to end and try to keep it together as best as possible. Then, cut from the end across the two long lenghts of noodle dough into the thickness you like. I like a 3/8 inch cut. Do that to the entire mess of dough. And toss it in the flour to keep it separated.

Then, to the rolling boiled liquid and meat, add the noodles that have been shook loose from most of the flour, but keep lots of flour on them, as this flour will thicken the liquid for the Beef and Noodles. If you need more thickening, add some flour and water paste thinned out in the broth to the pot.

For a good touch, add a nice splash of real sherry wine. It perks the flavor of the beef.

Only salt and pepper AFTER you've made your broth and do it to taste, and do it AFTER you add any boullioin for flavor.

You can degrease the broth if you like, but, leaving it in is okay in beef and noodles. This is a hearty dish and the fat adds lots of flavor and gets soaked up in the gravy and the noodles anyway.

This is the way my grandmother taught me to make this, and she was from South Dakota. I have a good friend who is from Iowa and she makes her Beef and Noodles the same way, and a friend of Indiana makes her the same too. She adds more onions in hers than we do.

The real way to serve them in our family is to make mashed potatoes and serve the beef and noodles over buttery mashed potatoes. (I come from a long line of hard working farmers from the cold who needed extra fat on their frame to make it through the hard winters!)

Michelle

RE: Beef & noodles recipe
Thanks for posting. Its looks really yummy !
Lois

I usually just use this as a guide and put however many veggies I feel like (usually more taters & carrots) I'll note changes I made to the regular recipe in parenthesis

Chicken & Dumplings

2-1/2 to 3 lbs chicken thighs (can also use a whole chicken)
5 c water
4 red potatoes cut in sixths (I like yellow taters since they're not as waxy but still hold together)
3 carrots, cut in sixths (can use baby carrots)
2 celery stalks, cut in sixths
1 onion, cut in eighths
10 oz frozen peas (or fresh added right before adding dumplings)
S&P to taste
(I add garlic powder, a couple of bay leaves, fresh or dried rosemary, sage, lemon thyme (or poultry seasoning) to taste since I think it's a little bland with just salt and pepper)

In a large stockpot cover chicken with 5 c of water, (I add seasonings at this point); cover and boil on medium heat until tender, about 50-60 mins. Skim fat (optional (-:). Remove chicken, let sit until cool enough to handle. Remove skin and shred chicken. Return to broth. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook 20 mins.

(*note - fresh herbs can be finely chopped, or left whole and removed before adding dumplings)

Dumplings
1-1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter (I use margarine)
3/4 c milk
1/4 fresh parsley (optional)

Sift flour, baking powder & salt, cut in butter/margarine. Stir in milk and parsley.

Drop into hot stew. Cook uncovered 10 mins, then cover and cook 8-10 mins until dumplings are done.

Dumplings.....hmmmmmm........

There are "slicks" (the Southern way) and there are "dough clods" (the Yankee way).

Just kidding, y'all. :>)

MOM'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS

1 stewing chicken or hen
1 tsp. Garlic salt
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Cook hen in pressure cooker with lots of salt and MSG, plus 1 teaspoon garlic salt. (If you don't use MSG, just omit it). Cover chicken with water and close. Place 15-lb. weight on top and cook over medium-high heat. When the weight starts "popping" 2 to 3 times a minute, cook 15 minutes. Cool the chicken and de-bone.
Mix flour, salt, and a little less than 1/2 tsp. baking powder. Blend eggs with 1-1/4 Cup *cooled* chicken stock from pot (1/3 of it should be fat). Stir into flour a little at a time. On flour-covered board, knead dough and roll it out till thinner than a nickel. Cut dumplings (about 2 inches wide by 10 inches, or however long possible). Stack well-floured dumplings onto plate.
In large pot, bring the rest of the stock to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the chunks of chicken alternately with the dumplings; quickly pushing them below the surface of the liquid as you add them. DON'T FOLD THE DUMPLINGS!
Keep mixture boiling at all times. Lower heat; cover and cook for 12-15 minutes. Don't lift the lid for the first 10 minutes. Add 1 tsp. pepper to broth. You might need to add additional stock during the cooking process. Yield: 6 servings.

Recipe by Vicki Braun.

Thanks for the recipes guys! I've heard that my grandmother used to make killer chicken and dumplings, but she wouldn't give my mother (her DIL) the recipe. By the time I was cooking a lot I don't think she remembered the recipe anymore -- she was nearly 90 by then, and hadn't made chicken and dumplings in years and years.