A Fall Comfort Food Favorite: Chicken & Pinched Dumplings

Chicken & Pinched Dumplings

I love autumn weather. I love having the windows open and feeling the crispness in the air! And when that time of year hits, I go soup crazy! I mean, what is better than a bowl of soup, some good bread and a cozy fire. It’s just heaven for me!

Reality is that I am in L.A. Fall is relative around here. The other day I saw a lady in fleece lined boots and a big coat on because it was 64 degrees that morning. Okay. I get it. When you get a chance to wear something winterish in L.A. you go for it. I understand her excitement. However, I had on capris and my flip flops.

But the dip in morning temperatures gave me the perfect excuse to make an old family favorite; Chicken & Dumplings. I love me some chicken and dumplings. Everything you need is right in that little bowl; the ultimate comfort food.

The only two variation I made in my standard recipe was to add two new ingredients. First, I saw a segment on Food Network where the host was using a parsnip. We never grew parsnips. I have never eaten a parsnip. But she made it look good and said it was a cousin to a carrot so I decided to give it a go. The other ingredient was a new spice blend that I saw on the top shelf of the Kosher food section; a poultry blend. It has salt and all sorts of spices and dried herbs. So glad I followed that impulse to buy it!

Before I started cooking I took a poll of my Facebook friends to see which type of dumplings they preferred. The two types are rolled/cut dumplings or the drop dough type of dumplings. I was surprised to see how many do the drop type. I took the advise of one friend and tried her approach. She makes the dough for the rolled out dumplings but pinches the dough instead of cutting it. So, that is the technique I used for this recipe. It was just as fast as doing the drop style. The texture of these pinched dumplings is just like the cut kind, kinda chewy. In my experience, the drop type is a little fluffier than the chewy version. So, it is up to you. Roll/cut, drop or pinched. Here is what I came up with to share with you.

Chicken & Pinched Dumplings

Serves: 6-8
One Pot Meal

Ingredients:

• 2 Large chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cubed
• 1 large parsnip, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3-4 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 49oz can chicken broth
• 2 regular cans chicken broth
• 5-6 fresh sage leaves (optional)
• 2 TBS butter
• 2 TBS olive oil
• Seasonings: Poultry Blend seasoning or salt, black pepper, garlic,  dried herbs; sage, thyme, parsley and whatever else you like that goes with chicken.

Instructions:  Part 1

1. In a soup pot, add a TBS of oil with the butter and begin browning the chicken, seasoning it liberally. 
2. When the meat is 80% cooked, spoon it out and into a mixing bowl to set aside.
3. Now, add your onions and celery to be bits left in the pot and begin to saute them until the onions start to turn clear. Add the fresh sage leaves.
4. Next add the parsnips and carrots to the pot. Cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Pour the chicken and the juices back into the pot and give a good stir.
6. Add all the chicken broth and bring the soup to a boil.
7. Cover and reduce the heat to low while you are mixing up the dumpling dough.

Get all the ingredients gathered

Everything is chopped and ready

Chicken is about 80% done

Celery and onions

Add the Carrots and Parsnips

Dumplings
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBS Crisco
• 1 tsp Crisco
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 3/4 cup cold water

Instructions:  Part 2

1. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, pepper. 
2. Cut the Crisco into the flour mixture using a fork. 
3. Slowly add the water until you form a dough ball.
4. Score the dough ball into strips that make pinching the dough a little easier

All the dry ingredients and Crisco

Cut the Crisco in with a fork

Add water slowly and mix into a ball

Score to make pinching easier

Instruction: Part 3 - The final stage!

1. Take the lid of the chicken soup, fish-out the sage leaves and return the mixture to a boil.
2. Pinch dough into “Hershey Kiss” size pieces and drop one at a time into the hot broth.
3. Make sure to let a few seconds pass before you add another layer of dough balls. You don’t want them to stick to each other.
4. As the dough gets done, it will float to the top.
5. When all the dough is in the pot, reduce the heat back to low, put the lid on and cook for 20-minutes.

It will look like this as it cooks

Ta-Da! Chicken & Dumplings

Your house will smell SOOOOO good! BTW this recipes freezes well. So bake a big batch and freeze it in serving size containers to enjoy all winter! This is also an ideal recipe to use with leftover roast chicken or to use up all that turkey from Thanksgiving.

Now, a few blogs ago I posted a scones recipe. I took that same recipe and made it savory to eat with my Chicken & Pinched Dumplings. Just omit adding sugar to the dough and use fresh or dried herbs like sage, thyme or rosemary and a little black pepper instead of the dried fruit. I also brushed them liberally with butter. So good!

I hope you give this a try. It reads like there are a lot of steps, but it’s a ONE-Pot-Meal. The cleanup is so easy! Bowls and spoons!

Let me know how it worked for you and send me the photos of your success! I’d love to show everyone!

As the mixing bowl turns,
Donna ; - )