Casseroles: October 2005 Archives

1 whole chicken
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 - 4 garlic cloves, crushed
salt and pepper

Place chicken in stock pot. Add vegetables and seasoning. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down heat. Cook until the chicken is tender and the meat is falling from the bone.

Remove chicken from stock. Set aside on a baking sheet and allow to cool. Carefully strain the vegetables from the hot stock.

Dumplings
Bring the stock back up to a low boil. Begin adding strips of Anne's Dumplings to the pot 3 or 4 at a time. With a long handled spoon move them around in the stock gently allowing them to begin to cook through before adding more. Once all of the pastry strips are in turn the heat down to a simmer. Check and stir often. Dumplings will settle to the bottom and stick and scorch. Scorched dumplings are not good.

While the dumplings are simmering, pick the meat from the chicken and shred or tear into bite size pieces. Put the carcass into another pot with water and those limp cooked vegetables and set to boil again. Believe me there is still a lot of flavor in there to cook out.

Add the meat to your dumpling pot. At this point you can also add a small package of frozen peas and carrots. The bright colors dress up the dish and make it more interesting to the eye.

As the dumplings cook they will absorb alot of the stock. If the stock remains thin like soup you can add a can of cream of chicken soup to get a creamier consistancy. If it gets thick, beyond stew like, the chicken pieces you have boiled the second time, use that stock to thin it out. Add a can of cream of chicken soup to get a creamy consistancy. You can add a few peas and carrots to add color.

Before serving, taste the dumplings. Dumplings need salt, you may have to salt the pot while it simmers.

Whatever stock that you have left, strain out the veggies and carcass pieces, freeze it for use later in other soups or stews or to make noodle soup with. Pick through the bones and you will find a good bit of meat slivers to set aside for noodle soup.

For noodle soup you simply need a quart of stock and some egg noodles. Bring the stock to a boil, add the noodles, cook until tender. Perfect soup every time.

Something my old Aunt's did to dress up the dumpling pot - Once the dumplings are cooked make a pastry crust and seal the top of the pot. Brush with butter and bake like a pie. It is so nice to break through the crust and scoop up a creamy helping of the chicken and dumplings.