With the kids back to school and Autumn fast approaching slow cooked stews and roasts are officially in season. On Sundays is when I have the time to make a dinner that requires time to reach perfection.Chicken and Dumplings is one of those Sunday Meals that excites the entire family as soon as the chickens hit the oven. It’s classic slow cooked family comfort food that permeates the house with fine aromas through the day heightening the olfactory senses and creating the type of anticipation that only adds to the finally of dinner time.
This is a meal I will start very early in the morning so I can execute every step perfectly while multitasking through the day resulting with a perfect conclusion.
Start with two 5 lb chickens seasoned on all sides with plenty of salt, pepper and garlic and roast them at 350 for 1 1/2 hours
While they roast cut 2 lbs carrots, 4 stalks celery and two large onions into 1 inch chunks and saute them to a medium brown and set aside.
When the Chickens are cooked place them in separate pots and put just enough water in the pots to cover them with an inch of water.
Bring them to a boil and turn down the flame so they can simmer for an hour.
Remove the chickens from the pots and allow to cool slightly so you can pull the meat off the bones placing the meat from the chickens in their respective pots, discard the bones and divide the vegetables between the two pots, season with salt, pepper, oregano, sage rosemary and basil. Bring it back to a simmer and thicken with roux to a smooth velvety consistency. ( If you don’t know how to make roux it’s actually quit simple and I am going to walk you through it. Start with two sticks of butter and half cup of flour. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan and add the flour stirring constantly, adjust the roux to a thick paste and cook over a medium flame stirring even still until blond in color. This only takes a few minutes. turn of the flame and divide between the two simmering pots stirring it in to assure there will be no lumps)
When the gravy has incorporated make your own dumplings with
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup water
2 small eggs
3 cups flour
In a large bowl, mix together the salt, oil, water, and eggs. Slowly add the flour to the mixture, blending it constantly with a fork. Stir only long enough to mix the dough.
Or to make it easy grab a box of Bisquick and follow the recipe for dumplings on the side of the box. These will set up in about 10 minutes and you will have a wonderful meal with your loved ones.
Norton on Food 