Chicken and Fresh Milled Dumplings
Fresh Milled dumplings provide added nourishment to a classic comfort food.
About eighteen years ago, I watched a random episode of Oprah where Tim McGraw was making his famous chicken and dumplings. My mom and I, from opposite ends of the country, hopped on the phone after watching and decided to make the recipe. Over the years we have tweaked it to make it our own, and it’s become a staple family recipe. This simple comfort meal requires minimal ingredients and can be adapted to whatever you have on hand. As for the chicken, unless you are raising your own meat birds, you will want to find a local farmer who is raising happy chickens.
For this recipe, I use my Vitaclay stockpot cooker. It cooks a fully frozen chicken and makes nourishing broth in about 4.5 hours - while I am doing housework, gardening, and taxi-ing children. If the chicken is fresh and thawed, it takes about 2 hours to cook. The cooker automatically shifts over to the “warm’ setting when the cook time ends, and holds it at temperature until I am ready to proceed with the next step of straining the stock and shredding the chicken. This recipe can also be made in a large dutch oven or stock pot on the stovetop. Instructions for both methods are below.
Chicken and Fresh Milled Dumplings
Makes about 8-10 servings
TOOLS
Stock pot or Vitaclay cooker
Chef’s knife
Cutting Board
Mixing Bowl
Rolling Pin
Bench Scraper
INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken, local and pasture raised if possible
2-3 bay leaves
Fresh herbs - thyme, rosemary, sage
4ish quarts of water - enough to cover the bird in whatever vessel you are cooking it in
1/2 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
DUMPLINGS
2 cups or 250 grams fresh milled Kamut flour
4 Tbsp butter, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 cup or 120 grams milk
1 tsp salt
METHOD
COOK THE CHICKEN + MAKE STOCK
Remove whole chicken from the refrigerator or freezer and place it in your stockpot or slow cooker. Cover the whole chicken in water, leaving a couple inches of space at the top of the pot. Add 2-3 bay leaves and some fresh herbs to the pot. You can also add a 1/2 or whole onion, a couple of carrots and celery ribs to flavor the broth. If using the Vitaclay: Set cooker to “slow” for 3-4 hours on soup setting. If cooking on the stove in a stockpot or dutch oven: bring to a boil then immediately turn heat down to low and simmer for 3-4 hours, without ever letting it come to a full boil. Periodically skim the foam off the top of the stock for the first couple hours of cook time.
After 3-4 hours, take the chicken, herbs, and bay leaves out of the pot. Skim the broth with a wire skimmer until clear, or pour through a strainer and return stock to the pot, on low heat.
Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle, remove the meat from the chicken carcass. Add the shredded chicken back to the warm stock. Depending on how hearty you would like your chicken and dumplings, you can add the meat of the entire chicken back to the broth, or for a more brothy “soup”, add back only 1/2 the cooked chicken and reserve the remainder in a covered container in the refrigerator.
MAKE THE DUMPLINGS
Add freshly milled flour to a medium sized mixing bowl and use your fingers to mix the softened butter and flour together until it forms sandy looking crumbs. Create a hole in the center of your flour and butter mixture and add in the egg, milk, and salt. Mix dough until it forms together, similar to a pie crust dough.
Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and press dough out on counter. With a rolling pin, roll dough out until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut dumplings to desired size and using the bench scraper, loosen them from the countertop and toss in any extra flour that is on the surface. Transfer dumplings back to the mixing bowl and then into the simmering stock and chicken. Add salt, pepper, and thyme to the stock, chicken, and dumplings and give it a good stir.
Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently to break dumplings apart and allow stock to thicken.
When dumplings are cooked, ladle soup into bowls and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh parsley on top.
ADAPTATIONS
You can roast the chicken in the oven first, pick the meat off the bones and make broth with the carcass by simmering with herbs and vegetables of choice for 3-4 hours.
Roasting and pureeing a whole butternut squash and adding it to the stock creates a rich, silky and even more hearty soup. Perfect during the fall and winter months.
Any seasonal vegetables can be added to the stock to create a more hearty soup. My family’s favorite is a whole bunch (literally) of carrots chopped and added to the simmering stock.
This meal can be prepped ahead and frozen in Souper Cubes or freezer safe containers for easy reheating on the stove.
Such a comfort food! We might have to make this at the cabin.
Can I make the dumplings ahead of time and make the soup the next day?