Chicken & Dumplings - help with dumplings, please?

Of all the things I regret most in my life, right up at the top is having "more interesting" things to do when I was a teenager than spending time in the kitchen with Mama and learning how she made all those wonderful foods she cooked for us when I was growing up. Phone calls from across the country after I left home weren't enough to make up for it - it's hard for someone whose main method of cooking was "add it till there's enough of it & cook it till it's done" to give exact quantities. And now it's too late to ask her anything.

And so it is with dumplings. I want to make chicken & dumplings today. But I have never figured out how to make them like Mama did. Hers were chewy and about an inch thick; not "light & fluffy" - these were something you could sink your teeth into. The ones I make, if they don't disintegrate altogether in the broth, are of almost "melt-in-the-mouth" consistency - which would be all fine & good if I wanted melt-in-the-mouth dumplings, but I don't. I want chewy & thick like the ones Mama made.

I'm pretty sure she used biscuit dough, because I remember when she started using canned biscuits for dumplings. But that's a non-starter for me. Can't get Hungry Jack (or any other kind of canned biscuit) in Scotland.

So I need to make them from scratch. Any suggestions on ingredients and/or cooking methods would be greatly appreciated.

(And for those of you who are still fortunate enough to be able to spend some time in the kitchen with your Mama, please take my advice & do so before it's too late. I have a feeling you'll learn a lot more than how to cook. Sure wish I'd done so.)

here are a couple of recipes for it (copycat)

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/511/Bisquick35107.shtml

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/48080

http://melissasgarlicdressing.com/blog/archives/109


Also, here are a couple recipes for dumplings from scratch:

My two grandma's recipe (cause I like them chewy too...we called them pot pies)

Pot Pie Dough: Grandma 1

Pot Pie Dough:

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. water

To prepare pot pie dough: combine flour and salt. Beat eggs with 4 Tbsp. water. With a fork work into flour and salt until you have formed at stiff dough. Add more water if mix is too dry. Roll dough out onto a floured board until thin. Cut into 2 inch squares. Drop Pot Pie dough into boiling broth a few at a time and cook about 20 minutes

Pot pie dough - Grandma 2
2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 heaped tablespoon shortening, 1 egg, 1/2 cup water (note - do not use quite all flour). Mix, roll (briefly), cut about an inch wide or squares, and drop into boiling chicken broth.


Also:
http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Slick%20dumplings



WARNING - MANY involve lard...if you want chewy, ya gotta use lard or shortening

Your Grandmas' recipes sound delicious - thanks for sharing them, and the links, too.

I don't have any lard in the house, so I'll use shortening (or what passes for it here.)

Thanks again!!

a few different kinds of dumplings. There are the biscuit type that are cake like about the size of a plum, the noodle type (which I believe you are talking about) and the matzah ball type which are my favorite made in the German/American variation made with butter and white bread crumbs.

I make the noodle type by starting with equal eggs and cups of flour and just a little salt. I usually use an 8 quart pot around 2/3 full with the broth and boned chicken. then use 6-8 eggs combined with 6-8 cups of flour. I just teaspoon the dough into the pot but they could be shaped too. A good addition to the dough is a tablespoon of bullion crystals (instead of salt) mixed with the eggs before adding the flour. I have made these many times with chicken and everyone likes them a lot, they are chewy. My mother never made this type with chicken only beef soup for some reason...to this day she doesn't have a reason why.

Funny, I always thought I was trying to make the biscuit type (I guess because Mama used the canned biscuits after while.) But I think your noodle description sounds about right!

Our household prefers the 'light & fluffy' version, and I learned the hard way, after turning out chewy batch after chewy batch, that it makes a difference in how you work the dough and how long you let it set before cooking.

If you want chewy, you need to work the dough (fingers or spatula) to develop the gluten, and let it set for awhile (an hour or so is fine) for the flour to work its magic.

Minimal dough working and making the dough just before you cook it is essential to light & fluffy. As I am learning. Slowly.

ruefully,
Bright

Actually, come to think of it, I have always read that when making biscuits, pie crust, etc., you're not supposed to work the dough overly much because it'll make them tough. I suppose it makes sense that "tough" carried over into cooking the dough in broth would translate into "chewy."

I wonder if that's how Mama did it. I tried the egg recipe last night, and although they were very good, they were a lot denser than the ones she made. Still, they didn't fall apart in the broth, which is a vast improvement over my usual results!

except for oven fried chicken and she did me a favor by making me learn out of books and from Julia Child.

Part of your problem is that flour in Scotland has considerably less protein (gluten) in it than flours found in the US. That's why it's been so hard to duplicate French baguettes here and your mother's dumplings there.

I'd suggest you work the dough more than you think you should to try to activate as much of the gluten as you can. If you're looking for chewy, that's probably what will get it there instead of the hockey pucks you'd get here in the US.

Can I just say that it's pretty hard to duplicate French baguettes in my house, too? However, I suspect it may not be solely the fault of the flour in this particular instance. Thank goodness for bakeries. :D

(But yeah, I hear what you're saying. Bought some "French" bread at the grocery store during a visit at my Dad's house last summer and my first thought upon slicing it was, "Hang on... this ain't French bread - this is like Wonderbread in a log." Now I know why.)


Thank you for that information. I'm gonna try your and Tygr's work-the-dough suggestion, and I think I'll even give it a shot on normal biscuits next time I make them. Mine are definitely light; can't fault 'em there. Only too light. They fall into wee bits of crumble if you just look at them with a butter knife.

Chicken & Dumplings (from cooks.com)

3-1/2 lbs. chicken pieces
8 cups chicken broth

Dumplings

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (sounds like a bit too much to me)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup water

In a large wide pot, simmer the chicken pieces in the broth until the chicken is tender, 30 minutes or more. Remove the chicken and set aside. When cool enough to handle, skin and bone the chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. If desired, skim the fat from the surface of the broth.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the flower baking powder and salt. Using a food processor or pastry blender, cut in the butter until it is the size of very small peas and distributed throughout the dry ingredients. Add the water and knead 8 to 10 times. If the dough seems too sticky, add a little more flour. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 1 inch squares. Bring the broth to a rolling boil and drop in the dumplings. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to simmer. Cook for 10 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked. Overcooking will cause the dumplings to fall apart. To serve, place the chicken pieces in a bowl and ladle hot broth and dumplings over the chicken.

#############

One of my former neighbors used to make slick dumplings that only used 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 cup cooled chicken broth. There was no shortening or leavening. She would roll the dough out to about 1/8" thickness and cut into 4" strips and cook as in the recipe above, but I think hers got tougher if she cooked them too long. They were actually pretty good.

Let us know how yours turn out.

cheaper than biscuit and I think it works better. use the recipe on the box

most Jiffy products use lard. Bisquick uses hydrogenated vegetable oil.