Favorite Comfort Foods This Winter Include Chicken And Dumplings

If you ask any six people on the street to tell you their favorite comfort food, I believe at least one of those six people will say chicken and dumplings. Even though chicken soup and most every other one-pot style chicken dish may be right up there, for some reason chicken and dumplings just whispers “relax” gently in your ear.

Recipes for chicken and dumplings vary a great deal from person to person, and family to family. It all depends on what you learned growing up or where you live. Let’s just look at a couple ways that we differ in our favorite chicken and dumplings recipes.

Let’s start with the actual pot of chicken. Many people prefer to make their chicken and dumplings by beginning with a big pot of broth type chicken soup. That’s a great way to make a chicken and dumplings recipe because everyone likes your chicken soup already, so you can’t lose. You already have perfected your chicken soup, so why not just drop in the dumplings? It works just fine that way, and is delicious.

Then there’s the creamy pot of chicken style of chicken and dumplings. This is a warm and wonderful dish that is less like chicken soup and more like a chicken stew. You cook the chicken in a little water or broth until tender, then take the meat off the bone and shred. To the pot you add the chicken back in, then add sour cream, more broth, and some vegetables. When that comes back up to a simmer, you drop in your dumplings. This is a very rich and creamy dish with many varieties. It differs from the clear broth type of chicken and dumplings based on chicken soup.

You can also choose to make an oven baked version. You begin by baking chicken parts in a Dutch oven until they are tender. Then you remove the Dutch oven and place it on the stove top. You’ll add your vegetables with broth or water and cook until the vegetables are almost tender, then drop in your dumplings. This adds a great oven roasted flavor to the chicken and dumplings dish and some find the browning of the chicken more desirable than stewing the chicken. You’ll serve this with the cut up chicken pieces left intact; not deboned and shredded, much like serving a pot roast with veggies and potatoes on the side.

Dumplings can be as simple as cutting up some store-bought biscuits or as involved as preparing a dough with herbs and seasonings added. Either way, a classic dumpling recipe contains no more than a few ingredients – typically flour, salt, and ice water, with the addition of eggs and oil in some recipes. The ingredients and preparation of dumplings vary a great deal recipe to recipe, so experiment a little to find your favorite.

Regardless of the recipe you use for dumplings, the trick is in the cooking. However, there is no “one and only” method for cooking that defies all other methods. You’ll find that some recipes call for putting the lid on the pot while cooking your dumplings while others say the cover has to stay off. It doesn’t really matter because you’ll find what works for you for each recipe. Finding the right recipe will be a labor of love, which is all that matters!

As you develop your own personal favorite chicken and dumplings recipes, don’t fret about how each recipe differs so much. Like many comfort foods, this is another dish that most likely was created out of trial and error and with the food in supply during a cold, dark winter’s day. After every attempt at making this much loved dish, you’ll be able to look at a whole new collection of recipes for chicken and dumplings that were created by you and you alone! Enjoy!

Making delicious chicken and dumplings is an easy task that will warm your family’s home and your family’s heart! There’s nothing better than a little homemade chicken dinner to give your family something wonderful to come home to. Enjoy!