Cheating on the dumplings still makes a fine Chicken Stew
From
Beverly Mills
| October 07, 2009
In Kitchen Basics
Featured Recipe: Chicken Stew the Easy Way
Alicia and I both grew up watching our grandmothers make "Chicken and Dumplings." In the South, this could also be called "Chicken and Pastry." But what it boiled down to (no pun intended) was a hearty chicken stew with homemade strips of dough or dumplings.
To make these dumplings, Southern style, the flour, shortening and icy cold water were never measured. Our grandmothers seemed to know just how much to use by some sort of magic. Alicia's Maw-Maw would mix the dough with her hands and then dump it out on her blue counter top. The soft white lump was then rolled out, carefully cut into long thin strips and placed in the bubbling chicken broth.
It was quite a revelation to us when a company called Anne's started selling these flat dough strips frozen in many North Carolina supermarkets. But once I left the South, Anne's brand was no longer an option. So I turned to a quick-and-easy substitute -- old-fashioned egg noodles, sold alongside the pasta in practically every supermarket everywhere.
Problem solved -- and quite deliciously, too.
Comments
From Martha in KS - October 07, 2009
We called my grandmother’s Chicken & Noodles. She’d have dish towels all over the counters, covered with floury strips of dough. I make a decent replica using frozen Reames noodles.
From Beverly Mills - October 07, 2009
Great ideas! Thanks so much.
From Richard Pachter - October 08, 2009
If you have any leftover rice or mashed potatoes, add that too. Chopped onion, celery, parsley etc. And an egg to bind it.
From Jill Mann - October 22, 2009
My mom and grand-mother never measured any thing either. I have not been so talented. Mine never turn out very well. I am looking for a recipe that will help me re-new my dumpling outlook. Hope this is the one. Wish me luck! Thanks for sharing.
From Marilyn Morris Johnson - October 23, 2009
I add frozen carrot “coins” and use Anne’s Frozen dumplings… mmmm-mmmm.
From Beverly Mills - October 23, 2009
Yes, I agree that Anne’s dumplings are the best! They used to be only available in the South….do you know if they’re nation-wide now?
From Beverly Mills - October 28, 2009
From Anne Grimes, via email: (Could this be the REAL Anne?!!)
Anne’s Dumplings are shipped on dry ice 2nd day and while they are not in South Florida yet, they’re getting there!
www.annesdumplings.com.
Hate for you to be missing chicken pastry.
Anne
From Beverly Mills - October 28, 2009
I also love love love Anne’s chicken base. It’s sort of like chicken bouillon, but richer tasting. I once had my sister mail it to me when I lived in Minneapolis. It keeps in the fridge forever!
(I learned about this ingredient from an old Southern cook who used to work in the kitchen at my church in Raleigh, btw. Her chicken and dumplings was as good as my grandmother’s and that’s what she used to enrich her broth after boiling the chicken.)
From Beverly Mills - October 28, 2009
This from Anne, via email (Yes! The REAL Anne!)
Yes, I’m Anne,in Ayden, NC. Was in Orlando cooking at the Southern Women’s Show a few weeks back and I wouldn’t trade our weather here for Florida at all. It was so hot the week we were there.
Go to my website and read about our company. Lots of interesting things there and recipes.
Related Recipes
Chicken Stew the Easy Way
September 03, 2009
Here's a modern version of a kid-friendly classic -- Chicken Stew or Chicken and Noodle Soup -- whichever name makes you hungrier. This recipe combines the best of both.
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From Richard Pachter - October 07, 2009
My dumplings are bastard cousins to matzo balls, not pasta-like.
But then again I was raised in South Brooklyn, not Dixie.
Want a shortcut? Use Bisquik and matzo meal. Or just Bisquik, milk etc.