Katie Cooks: Today's dinner: Chicken and Dumplings

Today I made chicken and dumplings. Normally, I find many recipes online and then I take things I like from each one, but today, I used just one that was excellent!
The Pioneer Woman's Chicken and Dumplings: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/12/chicken-and-dumplings/

Here is how it all started: I went to Costco on Monday. Every time I am at Costco, I see the rotisserie chickens and I always debate buying one. I keep hearing how good they are. Finally, I was feeling a little wild, so I bought one (ha, ha!). All week I was busy and fighting a cold, so it just sat there in the fridge...all week.
Finally, with work done for the week, I decided it was time to do something. As I normally do, I googled the recipe I wanted. The one that looked best, was Pioneer Woman's recipe; plus, she is really witty! Below, I will give a few comments about things I tweaked, or would tweak, if I did it again:

1. As mentioned above, I used a rotisserie chicken, which comes already cooked. The chicken had some awesome juices on the bottom of the container. I began by putting the chicken in a large Dutch Oven on low heat. This got all the juices flowing from the bottom of the bird.

2. While the bottom of the bird was doing it's thing, I started dismantling the bird. This was the first time I have done this. Try not to think of this as a previously live animal. Think of it more as a puzzle that you are taking apart....yeah....a puzzle. Anyways....this was a first for me. I just ripped that sucker into pieces, separating all of the good meat into one container, the skin and yucky stuff into another (to throw away) and the bones were being put into a separate pot of boiling water for a broth. I felt like it was important to use as much of the chicken as possible.

3. This brings me to the next difference in my recipe. The recipe calls for 6 cups of chicken broth. I happened to have 3 cups worth in the fridge from a previous cooking adventure, so I used that, as well as creating 3 cups of my own with the chicken carcass (I hate that word...carcass...let's call it a chicken meat vessel - I love the word vessel). Making a broth is easy: just put the chicken bones in a pot of water, boil for at least 30 minutes, and then strain the liquid from the bones. Voila! Chicken broth.

4. So once the dismantling process was complete, I combined everything. I created a roux to add to the concoction because the Pioneer Woman's recipe says that the flour from the chicken helps thicken. Since I didn't use floured chicken, I added my own thickener. Roux is easy as well. I melted 2 Tbsp. of butter and then whisked in 2 Tbsp. of flour to form a lump free paste. This gets stirred in to the broth to help thicken it up a bit.

5. At this point, I had the roux, mirapoix (mixture of carrots, onion and celery), turmeric and thyme in the pot - btw (that means, "by the way"), the turmeric may seem strange, but is a must! It added some great flavor and color! As I was saying, I then added my two broths, half and half and the apple cider (another strange must have!).

6. Here is the one thing I would change if I did it over again: Pioneer Woman claims that the corn meal is a must for great dumplings, I say, gag! It was the only thing I regretted about the recipe. The only thing I can think is that I either need to get a finer ground corn meal (I used medium) or use less or none. It just added too much crunch to the dumplings. I like a really bready dumpling.

7. I always try to cut at least one fat corner somewhere in the recipe...it is important for a good recipe to have a good taste, but I find there are certain places you can cut that really don't make a big difference. For this recipe, I decided that would be the dumplings. Instead of half and half, I used my favorite new find: FAT FREE half and half. This is the best invention ever! I find that fat free half and half is not that great when used as a main cream factor in a cream based soup (it can be a bit curdly), but in areas where texture is not a factor, it is great!

8. One more thing to note: I was surprised how fast this recipe took. Maybe an hourish total...including the dismantling. It tastes like it took all day - I say, Milk it!!

Anyways, this recipe was Mike (my picky husband) approved, which really says something. Next time you are at Costco, and you find a wild hair....buy the chicken! You won't be sorry!