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Post by nana on Dec 29, 2015 19:39:35 GMT -5
Hard to believe that this is the first recipe on either forum for this, but it is. I know because I searched exhaustively for one! I christened my large single kettle in the thermowell with it.
I can't write a standard recipe really, because I never make the chicken exactly the same way twice. The dumplings are with measurements, though.
Dredge your chicken pieces in seasoned flour. I used legs and thighs, and salt, pepper, thyme and paprika. But you go ahead and use whatever you like. Brown chicken in frying pan in hot fat or oil, and place in thermowell kettle.
Then I chopped up an onion, 2 big garlic cloves, a few celery stalks, some parsnips(because I used up all my carrots on Christmas), and a sweet potato for color, and gave them a quick saute in the same pan, and added them to the kettle, and then my husband wanted peas in there too, and all I had was a bag of frozen mixed veggies, so I tossed in a handful or two of those, so there was peas along with corn, greenbeans, carrots and lima beans. I put in two small bay leaves, and sprinkled a little more of the seasoned flour onto the veggies and mixed it in a little, so the gravy would be a little thicker. Then enough broth and/or water to come up just below the tops of the veggies. Into the thermowell it goes, lid on and thermowell lid as well. Then 15 min of gas( that's how long it took for it to come to a full boil which I could tell by the sound) and about 3 1/2 hours off. It was absolutely fabulous, the chicken was melting off the bones.
Now for dumplings:
Sift together:1 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt Cut in: 3 TBSP butter Stir in just until blended: 3/4 cup milk
I also added some pepper, thyme and garlic powder, but that's just for fun. Drop by spoonfuls onto meat and veggies in boiling liquid. This makes the exact amount to fit in the single kettle just right, not too crowded. Now my Betty Crocker book says to boil 10 min uncovered and 10 min covered, so I took the kettle out of the well to do the dumplings, and boiled it 10 min on the stovetop, and then said what the hey, and did the last 10-15 min back in the well with the gas turned off. The dumplings came out perfect, nice, fluffy little gravy sponges. I'm wondering if next time I could drop the dumplings in, then put it all back in the well, bring it back up to a boil, and give it say 30 min with the gas off.
Anyway, it was a delicious meal for our first snowy day this winter. Comfort food at it's best!
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Post by karitx on Jan 1, 2016 13:25:39 GMT -5
Mmmm! One of my favorite comfort food meals.
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Post by 58limited on Apr 24, 2016 8:44:14 GMT -5
This sounds really good. I make chicken and dumplings occasionally but have never browned the chicken first - will have to try this. My dumplings are basically the same as yours except I use buttermilk and I put rosemary in them.
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Post by evangeline on Feb 20, 2017 21:35:21 GMT -5
I made the chicken end of this recipe tonight, only I ran out of time for dumplings and just dumped it over a wild rice mix. The parsnips browned beautifully with shallots and garlic & thyme . . . Great idea Nana, I think better than carrots, although there should be a carrot in most things. ;-) Used boneless chicken thighs (6) in a half pot. Ten minutes gas, one hour cooking time. Delish!!
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Post by nana on Feb 21, 2017 7:05:46 GMT -5
I made this last night too! Great minds must think alike! I did parsnips and carrots both this time, plus green beans, but you almost can't go wrong no matter what you put in as long as you have some celery and onions. We've had the grandkids for a few days and Jacob will eat just about anything in massive quantities, but Lily is picky. When I make something and she eats a full serving of it, you know it's good!
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Post by evangeline on Feb 21, 2017 8:14:13 GMT -5
Strange! Am thinking it might be good over a corn waffle too, a crispy one. I thought of you the other day because I remembered another 'ghost' story. (Ok, yes, I'm procrastinating, should be at my keyboard. Wait, I am at the keyboard. Oh, well.)
I went to grad school at Texas A&M and we studied a small town nearby as part of a joint design/planning class. The place was wretched. The African Americans lived, literally, on one side of the rr tracks and everybody else up hill. The downhill side flooded every year so badly that some of the elderly folk had to be rescued in boats. And yet nothing was ever done to manage the storm water. The heat and the mosquitos were terrible. The average annual income on the flood side was less than $5,000. This according to the mayor's office. Both sides were afraid of each other. The only person who could talk to both was the local cop, a super nice guy, just a gem. Everyone on 'the flood side' treated us with great courtesy and patience. The kids were bright and cheerful despite the fact that their school was so bad the state revoked its certification.
As bad as the present seemed to be, as the past was worse. Slave owners from Mississippi settled the area and were not kind to their folk. And then yellow fever came through like the plague and decimated both the flood side and the dry side. The people still talked about how terrifying it was, strangers dying in the hotel, the stage afraid to stop, families dying in a single day.. .
So. I was filming the main street and the tiny commercial district & I had the video camera attached to a gimbel head, a thing designed so the camera 'floats' and doesn't wobble as you walk. It was quite an apparatus involving a harness and doo-dads. So sensitive if someone blew on the camera it bobbed in this wonderful slow-motion drowsy underwater way, fascinating to play with. But of course the point of the special equipment was to manage motion and wind etc. so that the camera did not move at all.
At the end of the day I wandered across the tracks to the main park to film the bandstand & found myself in a small graveyard. The gravestones were from the 19thc: a plaque said that it was the yellow fever cemetery. I stood in an aisle and filmed a 360 degree view. All was peaceful, there was no wind, no one nearby. Silent except for the birds. I stepped five paces toward a large gravestone and my camera went nuts: twirling, pointing up, pointing down, rotating to the left AND THEN BACK TO THE RIGHT. Ok. I touched it with my finger tips to stop the motion. When I say 'touch' I mean with the tippy tips of my fingers, the gimbel was so sensitive it took practice to steady it to equilibrium. Stood there for at least a minute until it was still. Turned slowly toward the tall black gravestone. Camera still. Began filming. And again: the camera went bonkers, nose up, nose down, rotating counter clockwise. Tried repeatedly to still the motion. Then thought: what am I doing? Took the camera off the harness and RAN.
Haven't thought about that incident in years.
So there are people who practice geomancy. I don't know much about it, not being all that crunchy myself. But they say there are magnetic fields that emanate from the geologic strata. I could have stumbled across an underground stream, there must have been many feeding the swamp downhill. I don't know. But that camera moved the way it would if a single finger gave it an enthusiastic POKE!
Happy Tuesday!
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Post by nana on Feb 21, 2017 19:00:18 GMT -5
Who can say what it was? See the quote at the bottom of all of Pooka's posts. That's all the explanation we may ever get. Water may be a possibility, though. My family has a cabin in Vermont, no running water or electricity. There is a spring about a five minute walk away where we fetch our water, and some years back my brother was toying with the idea of trying to dig a well closer to the house. He talked to a guy in Rhode Island who was a dowser. He dowsed a topographic map of the area where our cabin is, and picked out a spot that he said we would hit water about 5 feet down. My brother laughed. It was about exactly where the outhouse was. So a few years later we needed to dig a new outhouse hole, and for those of you who aren't familiar, you dig it close enough so the dirt you dig up can fill in the old hole. Guess what we hit, about 5 feet down. It was too close to the old pit for any of us to really want to drink it, but having a foot of water in the bottom of the new pit has kept it, shall we say, functioning a lot longer and more pleasantly than an outhouse has any right to, so it all worked out.
So, was it just dumb luck, or did that dowser feel the water through the map? Again, who knows? It makes life interesting. Maybe you need to go back to that cemetery and see if theres a story that needs to be told!
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Post by evangeline on Feb 21, 2017 20:54:12 GMT -5
Dowsing a map! Wow. I can see looking at topo to find the low spot but saying you will hit water five feet down, that's nuts!
As crazy as the scene in the cemetery was, the real horror story was the way the people of that little village were at each other's throats.
I've now run out of spook stories.
I found a copper pudding mold in a fleatique this weekend. If the weather cools off I'll try one of the steamed pudding recipes I think Karitx posted? Carrots and ginger, I seem to recall? Spoused to be back in the thirties. Good cooking weather.
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Post by nana on Feb 22, 2017 9:19:03 GMT -5
When it's in the thirties here, we're thinking it feels like spring!
Carrots and ginger sounds good. Is it sweet or savory?
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Post by evangeline on Feb 22, 2017 12:15:30 GMT -5
Yes indeed! I lived in Central Leatherstocking NY for five years! Thirties = sweater weather, by gum. Now I can't find the thread here or over at Rangers. A sweet pudding, steamed in the well. Much discussion re: the amount of liquid. Seem to recall it was cooked in Dainty Lady, with her drop-down thermobaker cover. Have written one page today, not a good day, but that's how it goes. Tonight will have time to trawl around because I really want to try the mold. Must buy parchment and string though. If Vaporvac sees this she will weigh in because I think she has a collection of pudding molds.
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Post by nana on Feb 22, 2017 19:16:32 GMT -5
Not only do I not own a pudding mold(that I know of), but I have never made a steamed bread or pudding. They never seemed that appetizing to me, but carrots and ginger and sweet sounds like carrot cake to me......I may have to break out of my comfort zone!
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Post by cinnabar on Feb 22, 2017 19:59:26 GMT -5
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Post by evangeline on Feb 23, 2017 9:26:55 GMT -5
Thanks, Cinnabar! Really interesting. So if I read your results right, do a chunky purée and cut the sugar a bit. Wondering about condensation in the well. Will find out! Oh, and thanks about the brown paper. I wonder if white butcher paper would work ok. Have rolls of that here, we use it for drawing (thanks, Costco.) Also wondering if various potatoes have lower water content. ? More research.
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Post by cinnabar on Feb 23, 2017 9:32:45 GMT -5
I think I really pureed the carrots too much, have not tried it since. I am the tester here so had to eat the whole thing myself, oink, oink. The spices were strong, but I amped them more than I should have. Follow the recipe and you should be good.
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Post by wizardoftrance on Mar 2, 2017 1:00:07 GMT -5
I tried this tonight, and it was awesome!
This was the first time I have ever made any kind of Chicken and Dumplings, but it was the kind I had growing up that my mom made.
I used the single pot and the thermowell and the stove top just like presented here.
Thanks for posting.
(My wife makes an excellent Chicken and Dumplings also, but her dumplings are just kind of thick noodles suspended in the broth.)
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Post by Chuckie on Mar 2, 2017 10:05:04 GMT -5
(My wife makes an excellent Chicken and Dumplings also, but her dumplings are just kind of thick noodles suspended in the broth.) Monkey makes them w/the recipe off the Bisquick box, and they come out light as angel food cake!!! Try those sometime, if you have a box of that stuff 'hanging around'! CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by wizardoftrance on Mar 2, 2017 10:31:19 GMT -5
(My wife makes an excellent Chicken and Dumplings also, but her dumplings are just kind of thick noodles suspended in the broth.) Monkey makes them w/the recipe off the Bisquick box, and they come out light as angel food cake!!! Try those sometime, if you have a box of that stuff 'hanging around'! CHEERS! Chuckie Thanks for the tip! Will do.
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Post by mach12 on Mar 3, 2017 1:15:20 GMT -5
We do the Bisquick ones too, though sometimes when I'm in a hurry I pop open a can of refrigerator biscuits and lay them on top and they make surprisingly good dumplings.
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Post by wizardoftrance on Mar 4, 2017 11:13:25 GMT -5
(My wife makes an excellent Chicken and Dumplings also, but her dumplings are just kind of thick noodles suspended in the broth.) Monkey makes them w/the recipe off the Bisquick box, and they come out light as angel food cake!!! Try those sometime, if you have a box of that stuff 'hanging around'! CHEERS! Chuckie The recipe is no longer on the Bisquick box but I did find it online.
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