Chicken Stew with Dumplings

I’ve been kind of slacking on adding recipes, so I’m going to make up for it tonight. First up is Chicken Stew with Dumplings. Jesse, and a few others, had to work from 2pm-4am one night last week so it was requested that I make Chicken and Dumplings.

This recipe was really easy to make and I included all of the measurements, but I really didn’t use them. I did for the tricky stuff like the herbs and liquid, but for all the veggies, there was no measurments going on. In the original recipe, mushrooms and green peppers were included as well, but neither of us like mushrooms so those were never going to be included and Jesse didn’t want the green peppers. Not sure why, but if you want to add them (and any other favorite veggies), you should be able to without any problems. The one thing that I found nice, and have used multiple times while cooking, is that Meijer sells carrots and celery in a package together. It’s not a lot, but it’s the perfect amount for cooking when you only need a little bit.

Jesse likes a lot of dumplings, so if you’re a fan of dumplings, you’ll want to double this recipe. You can NOT triple this recipe and still have room in the slow cooker. The entire top of the stew was covered with dumplings since I doubled the recipe. It still was able to cook and everyone was able to get dumplings, so it worked out alright, I just wouldn’t triple it. However, I did also send along biscuits to go with the stew since I wasn’t sure how long the dumplings were going to last. I made the regular old Bisquick biscuits, but one thing I did do was to add all of the spices that were in the herbs. So in essence, I ended up with the dumplings, but in biscuit form. They turned out really well and this is a trick that I’ve been using a lot lately. Adding spices to the biscuits seems to go over well and even Ian kept munching on them like they were candy.

From everything I heard, the chicken and dumplings were a success. However, I rarely hear anything unless Jesse is told something.

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
2 cans (14oz each) of chicken broth
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breats, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 potato, unpeeled, diced
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 tsp dried basil leaves
3/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
3/4 to 1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Herb Dumplings: (recipe is doubled already)
2 cup biscuit mix
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/3 tsp dried tarragon
2/3 cup reduced fat (2%) milk

Directions:

1. Combine carrots, onion, and celery in slow cooker. Stir in chicken broth, reserving 1 cup broth. Cover and cook on low 2 hours.
2. Stir flour into remaining 1 cup broth until smooth. Stir into slow cooker. Add chicken, potato, peas, and herbs to slow cooker. Cover and cook 4 hours or until vegetables are tender and chicken is no longer pink. Stir in cream, salt, and black pepper.
3. For Herb Dumplings: combine biscuit mix and herbs in small bowl. Stir in milk to form soft dough. Spoon dumpling mixture on top of stew in 4 large spoonfuls. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes. Cover and cook 30 to 45 minutes or until dumplings are firm and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve in shallow bowls.

Makes 4 servings.