Chicken Stew with Herb Dumplings

I keep experimenting with Chicken and Dumpling recipes and this time I’m actually tweaking one of my own.  This time though, I didn’t want to do it on the stove and I wanted to make it a little less needy, so I’m not tweaking it too much.

When it comes to the slow cooker, I rarely measure out the veggies. Like today, I had a bunch of carrots and celery in the fridge, so I dumped all the celery in and half of the carrots. After dicing them of course. If you’re looking for a measurement, I generally do anywhere from 1/2 cup to 2 cups. This time around, I’m adding greed peppers to the mix, but not too much. I found diced onions and green peppers in the frozen veggie section at the store and I love using them. I can add a little or a lot – it doesn’t matter because I’m not having to waste the rest of the veggie. It’s awesome. I always keep a bag of both in the freeze now because it’s so easy to add that touch of onion/green pepper to any dish – meatloaf, chicken, soups, etc – it’s all good. So I did add a little diced green pepper, but just enough to give the stew some flavor and not becoming over powering. Maybe about 1/4 cup if that. The onions…my boys love them, so I rarely have to worry about how much I put in.

I ALWAYS measure the spices, so those are generally a good guideline. I’m still tweaking the amounts, so if you try this and find something that works better, I would love to know about it. I’m planning on shredding the chicken once it gets closer to dinner time, so cook it whole or dice it – it’s up to you.

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup or less diced green peppers
2 cans (14oz each) of chicken broth
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
3 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in half
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. Layer the chicken breasts along the bottom of a slow cooker. Layer on top the carrots, onion, green peppers and celery. Next add all the spices, leaving out the flour. Stir in chicken broth. Cover and cook on high 3 hours.
2. Stir flour in 1 cup of water until smooth. Stir into slow cooker. Cover and cook 1 hour or until vegetables are tender and chicken is no longer pink.
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 with a scoop or spoon. 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.