Chicken and Dumplings
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes to 1.5 hours
Serves: 6-8
- 1 chicken or chicken pieces, skin on (1.3-1.5kgs or 2.9-3.3lbs)
- 3 litres/3 quarts water or stock (I use chicken stock powder for added flavour)
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 2-3 cups vegetable scraps (carrot, celery, anything in your crisper that needs clearing)
- Salt and pepper
For dumplings
-
300g/2 cups plain all purpose flour plus extra for rolling
-
30g/1oz. butter
-
1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs warm water
-
1/2 teaspoon salt
Note: I brined the chicken for 4 hours that morning just to ensure that it was seasoned well. To brine a chicken, dissolve 150g/5ozs of salt in 1.5 litres or 1.5 quarts of water and cool. Submerge chicken in the brine and place in the fridge for 4 hours (up to 24 hours) and then drain the water.
Step 1 - Place the chicken with the water or stock, onion and vegetables in a pot or a pressure cooker. Cook for 1 hour or until the meat and skin come off easily. I put it in the pressure cooker for 25 minutes. Strain the broth and reserve chicken. Return to pot and return the soup to boil. Wait til chicken is cool enough to handle and shred the meat and skin with forks or your hands and set aside.
Step 2 - While the chicken is cooking, make the dumpling dough. In a bowl rub the butter into the flour and then add the warm water. Knead until you get a dough. Use plenty of flour at this stage so that the dough doesn't stick but also the more flour you use, the thicker the soup will be. Roll out and then cut into 8x1cm or 3.1x0.4inch strips or 1 inch squares with a pizza cutter. Dust with more flour.
Step 3 - Once you get the broth boiling again gently drop the dumplings into the broth one or two at a time. Allow to cook for 6-8 minutes and test them for doneness. Turn the heat down to low. Add 3 tablespoons of flour to 1/2 cup of water to form a smooth roux paste. Add this roux to the soup and stir well to distribute. At this stage you can keep this simmering away on low for another 10 minutes and then eat it or transfer it to a slow cooker to keep warm or cool and keep for the following day. Season with salt and black pepper.