What's for supper tonight?

3-4 pounds of chicken (I'll use legs and thighs, most often) in 6 qts of boiling water. add a medium onion, chopped, 2 stalks of celery, chopped and one clove of garlic, quartered. (I use three or so, actually, of the garlic.) throw in some fresh parsley (maybe 8 or so), tsp. or so of salt and a bay leaf or two.

let that go for about two hours, uncovered, at a nice simmer. it will reduce by about a third and make your kitchen smell fantastic. drain the stock. move the chicken onto a plate to cool a bit and get all the veggies and scum off the top of the stock.

pour about 3 or 4 qts of the stock back into your pot and bring back to a simmer after adding pepper to your tastes (but realize it will jump out pretty well here and can overwhelm the dish if too much is added), a pinch of salt and a tbs. of lemon juice.

while that's warming up, make up your dumplins. those are just two cups of flour, 1 tbs. baking powder, pinch of salt and 1 cup and 2 tbs. of milk. mix till smooth. let it sit for about 10 minutes. flour the counter and roll it out (I usually pat mine out by hand) until it's maybe 1/4 inch thick. (you may need to add extra flour or milk here, depending on if it is too sticky or whatever)

a pizza cutter works awesome here, but cut the dough into squares, maybe an inch across or so. the stock ought to be simmering now. add in the dumplins. stir often so they all get in there and don't end up stuck on the bottom. let them simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes. they will get bigger and then shrink back up as the gluten in the flour combines with the stock - that's what's going to thicken it up. if it isn't thick enough for your tastes, flour up some water or stock and add it in there.

the chicken should be cool enough now. I like mine to be kind of broken up and stringy, but some don't. so just make pieces how you like em and add them in near the end of your dumplin simmering process. maybe 5 or 10 minutes. stir a lot here, but if you don't want them broken up, stir softly or the chicken will break up pretty easily.

and there ya go. pretty sure that's it.

 

Gizzards, corn nuggets, okra

 

ah, the corn nuggets. a chicken e specialty.

 

Just don't eat it with cornbread. That's sacrilege.

Chicken and dumplings have always beeen my favorite. There are "family" recipes everywhere, and the one in my family is years on top of years old. I learned it and have made it a few times, especially for my future in-laws. Always a hit.

 

And that's where I purchased them from. Little nuggets of perfection.

 

yeah, I assumed as much. not a gizzard man, but long as you got the sweet tea, you're good in my book.

 

pbr ... you gotta eat the cornbread with the dumplins. you just do.
and my recipe is better than yours. so suck it.

 

Cook-off!

 

well, mine honestly tastes just like the ones you'd get here ... if that helps in the decision process.
took me some time to perfect into a solid copy-cat and pretty proud of the results.



(and while tbf would certainly give me a run, I'm not sure that pbr would stand a chance. we'd both chase him from the kitchen)

 

One of the best shows in TV history. Sakai was my favorite.

 

A big slice of meatloaf and a glass of milk.