Chicken and Dumplings

Keith has a smoker. There has not been much up on the blog yet about the smoker, but it is a fantastic addition to our family. We have smoked a lot of meat. This weekend we smoked two chickens. I used them for meals a few times, and I was left with two carcasses and one thigh.

The golden rule of whole chickens...DON'T YOU DARE THROW THAT CARCASS AWAY!

Slowly boiling the chicken carcass makes fantastic stock, and it gives you every little bit of the meat you could never pull off with your fingers. Never, ever, ever, especially when it is smoked.

I made an amazing flavorful and smoky stock, picked off all the meat, and made Chicken and Dumplings with it. It was awesome. Here is the recipe

Chicken And Dumplings

 4 cups Home Made Chicken broth ( see above)
4 cups shredded chicken cooked, or 4-5 chicken thighs raw
2 tbsp butter
4 carrots, sliced in half and then 1 inch chunks
1 onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, cut into 1 inch slices
2 parsnips, cut in half and then 1 inch slices
2 cloves of garlic, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white wine

Dumplings:
3/4 cup flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

1. heat butter in a dutch oven or heavy bottomed stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, celery, parsnips, carrots and red pepper flakes, season with salt and pepper. Saute for about 5 minutes or until the onions begin to turn opaque.

2.  Add the flour, mix well and cook for a minute. Add the wine first to de-glaze the pan. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot with your spoon. Then add the stock, continuing to make sure you clear any flour from the bottom of the pan. Add chicken and bring to a boil.

3. while you wait for the pot to boil mix together your dumpling dough. It should look sticky, a bit more solid than pancake mix.

4. When the pot comes to a boil, drop the dumpling mix by large spoonfulls onto the surface of the stew. you should be able to make 10 dumplings.

5. When the dumplings are all set, cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, or until  the chicken is cooked (if you used raw thighs) and the dumplings are no longer doughy in the middle.