Ultimate Chicken And Dumplings And Screwy Weather

 When I saw the recipe for Ultimate Chicken And Dumplings on the “Serious Eats” blog, I knew I wanted to make it.  But after making the best chicken noodle soup we’ve ever had, I decided to use it for the broth then just substitute the dumplings for the noodles.  I won’t reprint the broth or baked chicken recipe here but it can be found by clicking on the above link.  The one difference is that I removed the veggies from the broth.  For the dumplings, I doubled the ingredient amounts.  Sorry about the less than great pics.

The baked chicken and the broth.

Dumplings – Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients:

2 cup all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1¾ teaspoon kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

8 tablespoons salted butter

½ cup whole milk, at room temperature

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, pepper, and thyme. Using a flexible spatula, incorporate sour cream, butter, and milk, stirring until fully combined. (Avoid overmixing, which will result in tough dumplings.)

Using a large spoon, work quickly to gently drop golf ball–size portions of dumpling dough into simmering broth.

Cover and gently simmer until dumplings are fluffy, cooked through, and have doubled in size, about 10 minutes.

To Serve

Add a portion of warm chicken to each bowl, then the dumplings, and a ladle of the broth. 

Why not just add the chicken to the broth you ask.  Because it will often stick to the pan bottom and burn while the dumplings are cooking.  I’d seen this serving technique on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it works perfectly.

The Verdict:

It was very good and I liked the more flavorful dumplings but Bev thought they were not as lite as her normal ones - we also prefer them to be smaller.  As expected, the broth and the chicken were both delicious.  I would definitely use this recipe again although it is more cumbersome than some. 

The Weather

I normally open up the house during the cool spring temps and wait until pollen time arrives in late March before closing up the house and turning on the AC for the summer.  But with temps projected to be around 80 for the next several days, I turned on the AC on Mar 6 which I don’t think has ever happened this early.  We had four record highs in a row.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/5/25 event date