For nm, and the others I promised this to. Y’all are going to get to know what I’ve felt like all my life. I learned this from my mother, whose favorite saying when teaching me a recipe is “Just add ‘x’ till it looks right…” I really don’t have many measurements to give you. But, I’ll try.
OK, this couldn’t be simpler. This is one of those dishes that isn’t completely from scratch. I’d be interested in how other folks from around here do it.
For my family of four:
You need some kind of chicken (either boneless breasts or some kind of boned chicken). I use boneles skinless, because it’s easier and has less fat. You also need Bisquick, or a Bisquick-like product, and milk. There is the possibility you might need about a cup of chicken broth.
Fill a 4.5 qt dutch oven about 2/3 of the way with water, and boil about a lb of thawed boneless, skinless chicken breasts in it. If you want real authenticity (and better flavor) , boil a whole chicken, or a couple of quarters, but that’s a lot more work.
For the boneless/skinless type, boil about 15 minutes. For the boned type, boil it till the meat starts falling off the bone easily.
While this is going on, make the dumplins. I usually use the biscuit recipe on the box, which is 2 /14 cups of baking mix, and 2/3 cup of milk. The important thing is that you have that thick biscuit-y consistency.
Continue like you are making biscuits. Heavily flour a surface on your counter, and turn your dough onto it. Flour the top of the dough and pat it down to about a half inch thick. Fold and pat about 5 times, always adding more flour so the “sticky” goes away.
Then, roll the flour out like you are making a pie crust. What is that, about an 8th of an inch thick? Anyway, it should be darn thin.
Take a pizza cutter, and slice the dough into strips that are about an inch wide, and maybe three inches long. You’ll have some long ones and some smaller ones.
Hopefully, by now the chicken’s done.
When it is, take the chicken out and set aside. DO NOT drain. Turn the heat down to low. I usually throw in about a teaspoon of pepper and a tablespoon of salt. IF you are using the super-healthy kind of chicken, you might not have much chicken fat in your water – not good. This is where you add the cup of chicken broth.
Shred the chicken (no matter how I cool it, I usually mildly burn my fingers), and place the shredded chicken back in the stock.
Now, drop each dumplin strip into the stock. Don’t dilly-dally, because you’ll end up creating a dumplin wall and your later dumplings won’t make it into the stock, and you’ll be forced to stir. You can force them under the water once, if need be.
Cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes. By now, you’ll definitely have a dumplin wall. Pull back a little, and if the broth still seems too soupy for you (some people like it that way), add in a roux:
Mix two tablespoons of flour with enough water to make it into a liquidy paste, mix well, and slowly stir into the broth. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. The thicker you want it, the more roux you would add.
Remove from heat, allow to cool for AT LEAST 10 minutes to get a thicker consistency.
Enjoy.
I know this is a mess. I wish I had a recipe recipe, but that’s not how I learned to do it.