Chicken and Dumplings

There is something about a bowl of Chicken and Dumplings! Oh, the comfort that comes with eating the dumplings. Yeah, the chicken is good too. But those dumplings, when they are made right, they can make you forget all about your worries ~almost!

These dumplings remind me of the ones you get at the Cracker Barrel. My son, is a mighty picky dumpling eater! If they don't taste like the CB's then he won't eat them. After many failed attempts of trying to create the "perfect" dumpling so he would eat them, I played around with many recipes and came up with this one.

Chicken and Dumplings

4 boneless/skinless chicken breast
2 quarts water
1 can chicken broth or homemade
2 tsp salt 
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper

Dumplings

2 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup milk

Place chicken in a Dutch oven. Add water and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 hour or until tender. Remove the chicken from the broth and cool. Cut meat into bite-sized pieces. Mix cornstarch and milk together and slowly add to the chicken and broth. Whisk to keep any lumps from forming.  Bring the broth and chicken to a boil and add pepper.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter  and  add milk, stirring with a fork until moistened.   Knead the dough 4 to 5 times and roll out very thin. You want a thin dough, since it will fluff up when cooked. Also,  ** The less you handle the dough the tender the dumplings will be. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces and drop into boiling broth. DO NOT STIR!! If you need to make room for more dumplings, lift the pan and give it a swirl, to move them around. Cover and reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes.