Chicken and Dumplings

This is a meal I love to make when it's cold and drizzly out. There is something comforting about the smell of the chicken cooking, and then biting into the tender fluffy dumpling. I'm giving you two dumpling recipes at the end-they are both good!

For the "soup"

2 tbls olive oil

4 uncooked chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup butter, unsalted

1/2 cup celery, small diced

1/2 cup yellow onion, small diced (I dislike onions, so I use a lot of onion powder instead)

1/2 cup carrot, small diced

6 tbls flour

2 cups chicken broth (more if needed)

1/2 cup frozen peas

In large dutch oven or heavy stock pot, preheat the olive oil on medium high heat. Dice the chicken breast into medium sized pieces and slowly add them to the oil. Add the thyme, salt, pepper,  and garlic powder. Sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through, but not brown. Remove and set aside.

To the same pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery, onions and carrots to the butter. Stir occasionally for 4-5 minutes or until the onions are slightly translucent (since I don't add onions I just cook it for 4-5 minutes, and make sure the carrots are starting to get tender). Next, add the flour and stir for 1 minute until the flour has completely absorbed the butter. Stir in the cooked chicken and slowly add the chicken stock. Make sure you stir while adding the stock to prevent the flour from causing lumps. Add the frozen peas.

In a separate bowl make your dumplings from one of the two recipes below, follow the steps for the dumpling of choice to finish your meal:

Bisquick Dumplings:

1 1/2 cup Bisquick

2/3 cup milk

Mix until well incorporated. Bring the soup to a boil, this is important for the dumplings to steam properly. Drop large tablespoons full of the dumpling batter into the boiling broth. Continue to boil for 10 minutes, uncovered. Cover the soup and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes covered. Then, enjoy!

Thyme Creme Fraiche "Dumplins" from Food Wishes with Chef John:

1/2 cup Creme Fraiche (I used sour cream)

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tsp fresh chopped thyme leaves

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp fine table salt

Mix the creme fraiche, milk and eggs together, add the thyme. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the wet mixture and combine just until mixed. Do not over mix. It's okay to have some loose flour in the bowl. 

Drop in simmering soup mixture. Cover and cook 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!

Tuna Casserole

I grew up in fairly humble circumstances. My family was considered middle class, but I knew that my parents struggled as I was growing up. As such, we survived on very humble means. My mother did the very best she could with an ever dwindling food budget and we ate a lot of very basic foods: meatloaf, beef biscuit roll (a kind of roulade of hamburger and Bisquick biscuit dough) and, tuna casserole. The latter is one of those comfort foods I crave from time to time; I've since learned how to elevate it a bit, eliminating the inevitable canned goods in favor of a from scratch approach. This is my homage to simpler fair and simpler times.

Ingredients

12 oz. (one bag) of egg noodles
Five small cans of white albacore tuna
6 Tbsp. flour
6 Tbsp. butter
4 1/2 c. whole milk
1 lb. mushrooms, quartered and sautéed in butter or ghee (about 2 Tbsp.)
1/2 c. (or so) frozen or fresh (if you can get them) sweet peas
1 pinch of cayenne (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Approx. 1/4 c. bread crumbs
Approx. 2 Tbsp. butter to top

Sauté the mushrooms in butter until golden brown and set aside.

Cook the noodles until just under done (about 1 minute shy of the time stated on the package). Drain and set aside.

Prepare the béchamel as follows: Melt 6 Tbsp. butter in a sauce pan. When melted, add the flour and cook on medium high until the roux smells like cooked biscuits. Add 1/3 of the milk (cold--trust me on this) at a time and integrate well using a whisk. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste and set aside.

Drain the tuna well and put in a large mixing bowl. Add the mushrooms and any remaining juices, peas, noodles, béchamel, and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to a greased, deep side baking dish and top with the bread crumbs and chunks of butter. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

~David