Mikki Brisk

I first encountered this “Southern Living” recipe in November 2001. (Original recipe link is here.) I followed it to the letter, then decided to tweak it ever so slightly. Over the last 13 years, Mister and I have enjoyed the dish about once a year. And when I say we’ve enjoyed it, I mean we’ve savored the heck out of it, y’all. I made this recipe a few nights ago, even though it ain’t nowhere close to being cold weather here. And you know what? It didn’t matter. It was still delicious, still full of comfort. And it’s a perfect recipe for a Sunday Supper, or any other night when you’ve got some time for the prep work. Here’s what you’ll need…

Whole Chicken, Garlic Powder, Dried Thyme, Cayenne Pepper, Chicken Broth Paste (or Granules), Self-Rising Flour, Vegetable Shortening, Dried Poultry Seasoning, Milk and (not shown) Salt, Black Pepper and Bacon Drippings

Place the whole chicken in a large pot and cover with water.

Bring to a boil, then add salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dried thyme and cayenne. Cover the pot, reduce the heat and simmer 1 hour. At this point,  I let the whole she-bang cool and then place it in the fridge overnight. I do this because it makes it easier to skim the fat and scum from the cooked broth. And really, that extra fat is unnecessary. The scum is just grody, so yeah, I get that out of there, yo.

What’s left behind is a beautiful broth. Bring it to a simmer, please.

Now you have a whole, cooked chicken. You’re gonna want to skin and de-bone the bird, removing any excess fat in the process. Tear the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Once finished, you’ll have a beautiful bowl of chicken meat!

You’ll also have an ugly bowl of chicken skin, bones and fat. You’ll want to get rid of this as soon as possible, as it’s unseemly.

Add the beautiful chicken to the simmering broth, then add the remaining salt, pepper and bouillon paste/granules to the broth. Return to a simmer.

Now it’s time to make the dumplings, Dumpling! Add your measured self-rising flour to your sifter (or your strainer, if you’re like me).

Add the poultry seasoning and cayenne pepper to the flour, then sift into a bowl large enough to hold the ingredients.

Add the shortening and bacon drippings to the sifted flour mixture. Mix with a pastry blender (or two forks) until crumbly. I have never, ever gotten my flour-fat mixture to the point of appearing like “small peas.” It always just looks like flour to me, and it’s always fine. Don’t fret if a recipe describes an appearance you simply don’t achieve. It’s okay. I promise.

Add milk, and stir until combined. I always have to knead the dough in the bowl at this point. Simply stirring just doesn’t cut it for me. So I knead the dough until it looks like, well, like a ball of dough. On a funny note, I am fully aware of my using skim milk in the dumplings after using bacon fat. Don’t judge, y’all. It’s what I had on hand.

On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough. Flour your rolling pin a bit (or your glass or bottle or whatever the heck you use to roll dough), then roll to 1/8-inch thickness.

By the way, do you know how very thin 1/8-inch is? It’s half of 1/4-inch, for cry-eye. But it works for dumplings, so there you go.

Cut the rolled dough into 1-inch-square pieces. I use a pizza cutter for this, and it’s grand. You can use a knife, too. Or a spatula, or whatever. But a pizza cutter rolls it just right for me, and it’s easy. By the way, you can also just tear the dumplings (instead of cutting) and go from there. Your call.

Bring your simmering broth mixture to a boil. Drop your dumpling squares into the boiling broth mixture, a few at a time, and gently stir. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer the mixture for 25 minutes. Stir often, and gently.

That’s it! Ladle your chicken and dumplings into a bowl and dig in. This is one nice bowl of goodness, y’all. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Here’s the printable recipe: