Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

This is the recipe I used. Mine didn't brown as nicely.

Well, I did it. I tried a recipe I'd seen a while back but just hadn't gotten around to trying yet. I grew up on my mother's chicken potpie, which is very similar to chicken and dumplings down south except that the chicken is kept separate from the rolled and cut dumplings in the broth. Mom's was downright the best there was and she never made just a little. Her recipe called for SEVEN cups of flour. Yeah - really. And, there were only three of us.

Needless to say, for me it was a daunting task to even consider making her recipe because she'd never made  small batches and I wasn't that good at making the dough. So, she would periodically make drop dumplings in her later years, which she liked almost as much, but I wasn't so thrilled with.

Then I discovered I could make potpie (our kind) using flour tortillas. After all, aren't tortillas just flour dough already rolled and flat? All I had to do was cut them into strips and drop them into the broth to cook. Mom loved it and told everyone they should try it themselves.

So, Mom's gone now and I do once in a while make up a batch of tortilla potpie for myself. My daughter's not quite so fond of the tortilla kind, so I only make enough for me. But, I saw this recipe a while back and kept it in the back of my mind as a potential option for the future. It is called Chicken and Dumpling Casserole.

The original recipe I saw required Bisquick, something I never have on hand. But, just yesterday I found a recipe that called for self-rising flour instead of Bisquick. I knew I had to try it because I had self-rising flour on hand that was never being used except as a gravy thickener. The only thing I didn't have was cream of chicken soup. I did have cream of celery, though. I decided the time had come.

Tonight, I made Chicken and Dumpling Casserole and I am so glad I did. I wish Mom were here because I just know she'd like it, too. As with the pork chops yesterday, I was a little heavy handed with the spice. I used just a bit too much poultry seasoning, but I can cut back the next time. And, I might put a little more liquid in next time, too. But, those two things aside, I was very happy with the results. 

One of the reasons I don't like drop dumplings is because of the dry dumpling in the center. I like the rolled dumplings because they absorb the broth all the way through. Well, this recipe pretty much takes care of that problem. It works much like the Bisquick Impossible Pies where the batter cooks in the broth and puffs up creating a "dough"; in this case, the "dumplings". Because it is poured in as a thick batter, it doesn't really have a substantial thickness to it that allows it to stay dry as it cooks, so it creates a very moist dumpling-like biscuit topping to the base of chicken and chicken broth. 

The recipe calls for ready-made stock, but since I was cooking chicken just for this recipe, I used the stock that I created with that. And, I used that cream of celery soup knowing that there was plenty of chicken flavor in the broth and in the granulated chicken stock it also listed in the ingredients. I really don't think there was much of a difference between the two soups at all that I could claim to recognize. The only thing is that you really don't need to put any salt on the chicken because there's plenty of salt in the stock, in the butter (I don't have unsalted butter) and in the soup. You can always add some if you want when you eat it.

The only thing missing was cranberry sauce - an accompaniment I have always loved with chicken potpie or turkey dinner. I didn't even have any apple sauce, which is an acceptable alternative for me. Quite frankly, there are worse things to be missing. Like dinner.

Short and Sweet (or at least Savory!)

PA Dutch-style Chicken Potpie

I've been craving chicken potpie for a week or more. I'm not talking about something with a pastry crust. I'm talking about the kind of potpie I grew up on that can be found in many parts of South Jersey and in Lancaster County, PA. Sometimes called "slippery" potpie, sometimes called rolled potpie, it is basically strips of rolled dough that are cooked in chicken broth or stock like noodles until they are tender and the broth is thick. In the Southern US, they have a version of chicken and dumplings that resembles this very much because it, too, is made with strips of dough (usually cut into smaller units) that are then cooked in the broth. They just add the shredded chicken with it where we generally don't.


Well, I got tired of dreaming about it and finally made a short-cut version of it using flour tortillas that I cut into strips and then shook in some flour that would then thicken the broth when they were cooking. The broth I made using powdered chicken stock. I have to tell you - it may not have been the same as Mom made, but it sure did satisfy my craving!! It was the perfect comfort food!!


To top it off, I had a new jar of cinnamon applesauce just waiting to be opened. If I don't have cranberry sauce to eat with my potpie, then applesauce is the next best thing. And, let me tell you - it was WONDERFUL!!


So, if you're a fan of this kind of potpie and don't want to be bothered making the dough, rolling it out and letting it sit while you make the broth, then satisfy your craving using flour tortillas (really - tortillas and potpie dough are made from the same ingredients!) and using a broth base to create the liquid portion. It'll sure do in a pinch!! 


Let the comfort begin!!!

Back in the Kitchen Again

As you probably already know, if you know me or have read my blog, cooking is not my favorite activity. It's just not a gene I inherited from my mother who epitomized homemaking. Yet, I've done more cooking or food prep in the last couple of weeks than I have in a long time. I jokingly said on a Facebook post, "What the heck's wrong with me?!?" after a particularly productive day.


I froze just over 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters after buying them at a super bargain price, froze chicken broth created by my friend who was making chicken curry for us one night, froze ham broth from cooking my ham bone with a bag of frozen green beans, froze the beans for later use, then cooked pinto beans using some of the ham for seasoning and froze them, and so on. I made a great bean soup using a container of beans and a container of beef broth, baked a couple of leg quarters for my daughter and, finally last night, boiled another leg quarter with the intention of making creamed chicken today. 


Well, the creamed chicken didn't come to fruition. I just didn't feel like waiting for the crescent roll cups I'd planned to bake, so I decided to make some drop dumplings. I didn't have any baking mix, but I did have some "complete" pancake mix, so I used that. I added some parsley and some poultry seasoning to the dry mix and added water to make the dumplings. I had already pulled the meat off the leg quarter and added peas and corn that were leftover from our baked chicken dinner (normally, I'd use peas and carrots) to the broth I'd made last night to which I also added poultry seasoning, Adobo seasoning, salt, pepper, minced onions and celery. Since the broth was already at a rolling boil, I just dropped forkfuls of the batter (the same fork I mixed it with) into the broth. I meant to thicken the broth as well, but didn't think about it until after the dumplings were nearly cooked. So, I made a quick flour and water slurry and poured that in past the dumplings that I pushed to one side. Stirring to prevent lumps, I then added a lid to make sure the dumplings cooked completely through (I hate dumplings that are dry in the middle).


Although I think the combination of corn and peas made the broth a bit too sweet, it turned out pretty good. More like a thick soup than anything else, but good. The one leg quarter wasn't enough to make the creamed chicken I'd planned, but it was plenty to provide flavor and some meat for this dish. I had two helpings, so I obviously wasn't too disappointed.

R McRayne's Recipes

Lots of Broth on Hand - Low on Ideas

My gentleman friend cooked chicken curry for the two of us last week. He soaked the chicken in salt water before adding them to the crockpot to make them more tender and flavorful. Then he realized that there wouldn't be enough leftovers for his brother, so he hurriedly cooked up some more chicken in a pot of salted water in order to add the already cooked chicken to the curry sauce in the crock. He was about to pour all that chicken stock down the drain when I stopped him. I asked him to put it in some containers for me to bring home. Since it wasn't cool yet when I left, he didn't bring it until the next day. I repackaged it into my own containers and froze it for future use. I have about a quart and a cup of chicken broth frozen.


Yesterday, I re-cooked the bone portion of my ham with frozen green beans in water. Because my daughter doesn't like potatoes cooked in with the ham, I left them out. There was plenty of ham stock in the pot, so when I was putting everything away, I poured off the stock into containers and froze them along with the green beans we didn't eat. I have around 30 oz. of ham stock now in the freezer. 


I'm going to try to make some ham salad with some of the ham with my meat grinder. Maybe even some ham croquettes. But, I've also never used ham stock to make anything before. This will all be new to me.


I'm thinking of making some bean soup with the pinto beans I also cooked this week (I have no idea what has got into me with all this cooking - maybe Mom's paying a visit this week?) I think I'll add some carrots and potatoes, maybe some celery and onion. I love pintos and so does my daughter, but neither of us has ever had pinto bean soup before. How different can it be from regular bean soup? I used some of the ham to flavor the beans near the end of their cooking, so soup seems to be a natural extension of that. By the way, the beans are frozen in containers, too.


I would love to have some more ideas on using the ham stock (other than cabbage - that is NOT a vegetable of choice here). If you leave me comments and have an idea, I'd really appreciate it.