Chicken and Dumplings

My family loves when I make this comforting meal. 
It is perfect for cool Fall evenings. 
We usually eat all of the dumplings and I'm left with only broth and chicken. I leave it in the pot and reheat it the next day to serve over mashed potatoes. 

Chicken and Dumplings

1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, quartered
1 chicken
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon, chicken flavored
8 cups water
1 shredded carrot (optional)
1 cup frozen peas (optional)

1 tablespoon butter



In a 5 quart Dutch oven, lightly saute onion. Add whole chicken (breast side up) and let bottom brown a couple minutes. Season and add water. Bring to boil then turn heat down to a simmer. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours. 
Remove chicken and onion. Taste broth to see if it needs salt, pepper or more Better Than Bouillon. 
When chicken is cool enough to handle, pick meat off of bones. I usually add half of the meat back to the broth and save the rest for chicken salad. Add 1 tablespoon butter to broth.
Bring broth and meat to boil and add peas and carrot if desired. 
Meanwhile, make dumpling batter. Drop spoonfuls into boiling broth. 
Turn heat down to medium low and cover. Don't lift lid for 15 minutes. 
*Watch to make sure it doesn't boil over.
I've let that happen more than once! 


dumplings

1 3/4 cups flour (2 cups for more dense dumplings)
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups half n half

Whisk together dry ingredients then mix together with the wet.

In the photo below, I used 2 cups of flour in the dumplings. All of the other photos are dumplings made with 1 3/4 cups flour. Both amounts are good!

The batter in the photo above had only 1 3/4 cups of flour.