This week’s Tastes Like Vintage guest blogger is Gail from Blue Moon Attic
One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother making dinner. Years ago in the south, dinner was the big midday spread and supper was a lighter meal made up of the dinner leftovers. Most of the fixings were composed of vegetables from the garden. A typical combination would include; big, sliced, pink tomatoes, skillet fried creamed corn, butter beans with ham hocks, cucumbers in vinegar, big chunks of Vidalia onions, chicken and dumplings, washed down with a cold jug of sweet tea.
Earlier that morning, Grandma chased down a hen, and as quick as a wink, spun that chicken in the air and snapped its neck. The grandchildren would scream and Grandma would laugh at their squeamishness. Then the bird would be cleaned and its feathers plucked. After being cut up, that chicken was placed into a big pot and covered with water to stew. I can still clearly see Grandmother in her apron, standing in front of her Hoosier cabinet, measuring out the flour for her dumplings. Her grandchildren were running around, and her grown children were arriving home from work for their lunch hour. Once those dumplings were cooked, we’d all sit down, say grace, and enjoy a feast that I imagine Grandma is still preparing in Heaven.
Grandma’s Chicken N Dumplings
recipe as told by my mother
Ingredients
For the chicken stew:
1 chicken, cut into pieces
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
Enough Lawry’s Seasoning to season the chicken
For the dumplings:
2 cups self-rising flour
Pepper to taste
Enough chicken broth or milk to make dough (approximately ¾ cup)
Directions
Cut up and season the chicken with Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Place the chicken, celery, and onion into a large pot (Dutch oven type). Add enough water to cover the chicken and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer the chicken until it is tender, about an hour. You will need to add more water to the pot. My mother said to leave the fat and skin with the chicken because it will make the broth and dumplings taste good. She said you could remove the skin and spoon off the fat before serving. Once the chicken is tender and its juices run clear, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the bones. Return the chicken meat to the pot, and keep it warm over low heat.
To prepare the dumplings, mix the self-rising flour with the pepper in a mixing bowl. Some people add salt, but Mom said there was enough salt in the broth to season them, but don’t forget plenty of pepper. Now is where you get to make a choice. Grandmother used to make her dumplings with some of the warm (not hot) broth from the stew pot. She said it killed enough of the rising from the self-rising flour to hold the dumplings together better. Mom always made her dumplings with cold milk instead. You will need about 3/4 of a cup of liquid. Beginning at the center of the flour, drizzle a small amount of liquid over it. Using your fingers, and moving from the center to the sides of the bowl, gradually incorporate the liquid into the flour until you get a stiff dough. Knead the dough and form it into a ball. Break the dough ball into three somewhat equal sections. Dust some flour onto a big piece of wax paper on your clean counter. Roll out one of the balls of dough (it will be firm), working from center, as thin as you can get it, without it breaking apart. Cut the dough into your desired sized dumpling pieces with a knife. Then roll and cut the other two balls into dumplings. Let the cut dumplings rest for several minutes.
Now we will cook the dumplings. Begin by carefully laying some of the uncooked dumplings onto the top of the now boiling soup. Mom said to make sure you have a lot of broth and that it’s boiling. Don’t overlap them or the dumplings will stick together and be gummy. After about three minutes, gently press the cooked dumplings down with a spoon, but DO NOT STIR or you’ll have a mess. Add another layer on top of the still boiling broth, not overlapping, and cook another three minutes. Repeat the process until all dumplings have cooked through and are no longer doughy. The last dumplings will be the most difficult to cook as the broth will become thick from the flour. That’s what makes them taste good though!
My sister said to save yourself the trouble and use thick packaged egg noodles, but of course, they just won’t be as good as homemade dumplings. For the record, I have never wrung a chicken’s neck, but I have plucked a few feathers.
