Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Chicken And Dumplings

It was a balmy 8* here yesterday morning.  That's a lttle cool for a fall day (winter's a week away) in the South.

We have friends who basically don't cook and we like to regularly invite them over for a home cooked meal. Tonight’s choice was chicken and dumplings, and as with her potato soup, Bev is a purist – thickened chicken broth & milk, chicken, and dumplings. I’d prefer it be made with some veggies, like Debbie's over at A Feast For The Eyes, but this version is still awfully good. The one thing we did borrow from Debbie was to brown the chicken skin before removing it.

When the skin was browned, Bev deglazed the pan with some homemade chicken stock, removed the chicken skin, and cooked the chicken in the broth. When done, she removed the chicken to cool and added milk and flour to the pot to get the desired volume and thickness. She then de-boned and shredded the chicken, added it back to the pot, and mixed up her drop biscuits, using Pioneer Brand Baking Mix.

She dropped the biscuits in the pot a spoonful at a time and here they are cooking.

I got busy visiting with our company and sipping on some V. Sattui Gamay Rouge wine, and I forgot to take more pictures, which was a shame as my bowl looked outstanding and it tasted just as good - serious comfort food for a cold Saturday evening.

For our snow day on Monday it was chili pie and I think some recipes deserve repeating - Bev's Mexican cornbread.  We made some chili the other day and I didn't blog about it because it just looked like chili and we just added and tasted, so there is no recipe - except it was half beef and half venison and very good.  So for this meal she did as usual - pour the cornbread mixture in a cast iron skillet, top with the chili, and bake - the cornbread will come to the top.  This is the result after flipping to cornbread down when plating and adding a little diced onion and shredded cheese:

Pretty good eats, sitting in front of the fire on a cold day.  Click on pics to enlarge.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting Almost Heaven South - although you wouldn't know it from our temps.

Larry

10 comments:

  1. I do beleive you are going to have to feed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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  2. Everything you've described is flat out comforting perfect cold weather food. Can you please pass me that Mexican blanket and a bowl of Chicken and Dumplings...our weatherman just announced that we're to get 8 inches of snow starting tonight. :-)

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  3. Can I please come and stay with you for a while? Wait, it's too cold there...could you and Bev come cook...er...I mean visit me?? :) I love chicken and dumplings but Chris is not a fan and so I don't make it that often. And chili pie...mmmmm...when I was in college a friend of mine's mom would always send him home with like 6 of those things and we'd meet at his house and just devour them!!!

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  4. Larry, Chicken & Dumplings!! It's been forever since I've even seen homemade chicken & dumplings... I've with Bev. Veggies on the side. Just chicken & dumplings...sprinkled with a little Tabasco. Hungry Now! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  5. Mmm this is truly one of the more perfect comfort foods out there!

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  6. OK, since it was 8 there yesterday, I feel like my 10 was sort of a tropical breeze. Sort of. We reached a balmy 22 today!

    This looks like a great meal on an 8 degree day. I've had soup on all day for the past 2 days; we all needed it badly!

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  7. YUM---perfect comfort food on a COLD day/night.... I love chicken and dumplings.. My hubby orders them everytime we go to Cracker Barrel....

    The Mexican cornbread looks great also... I love anything like that with CHEESE on it...

    Stay SAFE... Hope the ICE stays away from us.
    Betsy

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  8. Larry, you guys are doing the right thing with all of that comfort food. Love chicken and dumplings, corn bread and chili. We have been doing a version of the same stuff here in "sunny" Florida. At least we don't have your snow, but I think if you have to be cold, it is better to have the snow to make it worth it. LOL

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  9. Yeah, that was a chilly little blast we had down here too. It's gone now, much more pleasant at 58 than at 28. That 8 you can have! I'm the same way with chicken and dumplings - like a little veggies in mine too, but that freaks some people out. They say that's a stew. I say what is chicken and dumplings but stewed chicken with dumplings in it?! Great meals, as always Larry!

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  10. Dang, Larry, you are rocking out the comfort food! The chicken and dumplings sound good but the chili pie makes an after lunch nap mandatory! I'd love a plate of that especially as cold as it's been this week!

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