Soups and stews have been around as long as cooking. They were among the earliest forms of meals for humankind, easy to prepare and easy to digest. In researching a vintage topic or recipe to complement Mythic Monday’s Hocktide post, I discovered beef was a favorite Anglo-Saxon food around 1000 A.D., and poultry was an especially sought after rarity. That’s hard to imagine. You’d think the country folk of that time would keep chickens as a matter of course.
Today’s recipe has a stew consistency. It is adapted from a 1959 Farm Journal Country Cookbook, but I like to envision the dish being eaten by King Ethelred the Unready out at his military camp. Hey, that’s why I’m a FICTION writer.
This is not the way my mother made chicken and dumplings, but I started making this dish for my husband early in our marriage. It also calls for a stalk of celery, but Ronnie hated celery. If you like it, feel free to add it.
CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
Ingredients: A 4-5 pound stewing chicken– cut up, 1 quart water, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 sliced carrots, 1 sliced onion, 1 cup milk, 1/3 cup flour, parsley dumplings.
Directions: Heat water to boiling and add salt, carrots, onion, and chicken. Cover and simmer about 3 hours. Remove chicken from broth and keep it warm. Strain broth and add enough water to make 3 cups. Return broth to pan and heat. Put milk and flour in jar with cover, and shake until mixture is smooth. Add slowly to hot broth, whisking to keep smooth. Cook about 5 minutes. Add chicken to the liquid mixture. Make parsley dumplings and add to simmering chicken about 20 minutes before serving.
Parsley Dumplings: Sift together 2 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley. Cut in 1/4 cup shortening until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Using fork, mix in 1 cup milk to make a soft dough. Drop by spoonfuls into the chicken mixture. Simmer 10 minutes uncovered. Cover and simmer 10 more minutes. Serve at once.
Cheers & happy reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Romance
Oh, wow, you’re making me hungry! I love chicken and dumplings. My husband’s grandmother had a wonderful recipe . . . then again she (unlike me) was a wonderful cook! 🙂
Mae, the recipe is what I consider the northern way of making dumplings, which was familiar to my Vermont raised husband. My mother made them the southern way, cut into strips. She was really good at all kinds of dough, including scrumptious pies. Which way did your husband’s grandmother make dumplings?
She’s been gone many long years but I seem to remember strips. She made her own dough ( for pastas too) and was such a fantastic cook. She never followed recipes but just knew how much of something went into a particular dish ( I can’t imagine cooking like that). It’s one of the reasons no one has her recipes today … she never wrote anything down. You mom must have been an amazing I cook too!
One of my family’s favorite meals–chicken and dumplings–especially my grandson. He says dumplings are like clouds in his mouth.
Loretta, do you make them by spooning or in strips?
I make spoon dumplings. It’s the way my grandmother made them. She was raised in the Florida panhandle and was taught by her mother. But, my mother-in-law made them in strips. She was from Ky. Personally, I agree with my grandson. Love those ‘clouds in the mouth.’ 🙂
My Aunt Elsie used to make parsley dumplings! I wish I had her recipe. She lived up north in Chicago.
Ronnie’s mother from Vermont made parsley spoon dumplings too, and I started making them for Ronnie early in our marriage. I need to find out if spoon versus strips is a regional variation. My mother made strips, and she was born in Olustee. Another woman from the Panhandle area also made strips, and a woman from Kentucky made the spoon version.