Chicken and Dumplings (Noodles, not biscuits!)
Peggy Muse, my mom, learned this recipe from her mom, Lillian Verna Grace Hartle Koehler Seabaugh, who learne it from her mom, Shabie Sophia Niswonger Hartle. Grandma Seabaugh shared this recipe with her church who served it many regularly over the years, in the process teaching the recipe to friends and family from across the county. Mom taught me this recipe over the phone, so you know it’s not hard! It does take some time, from start to finish, but oh, so worth the trouble! There’s also a dessert variation below!
The original recipe did not include adding the veggies or seasoning to the chicken, but I absolutely hate the smell of boiling chicken skin/fat! I added the veggies and seasoning and now love the smell and love the meal even more than before!
Also, if you’ve made noodles before, dumplings are a little different. No drying involved. Just make them and immediately cook!
1 T poultry seasoning, optional
salt and pepper, to taste
1-2 c warm broth (from the chicken)
Place the whole chicken (including any giblets), celery, onion, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper in a large pot. Fill pot with water to about 3 inches above chicken. Heat to boiling; continue boiling until chicken is completely cooked. If fully thawed, this will take at least 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the chicken.
Once chicken is fully cooked, remove everything from the pot, reserving all broth. Remove 2 cups of broth from the pot for use in the dumplings. Remove all skin, fat and bones from the chicken. Cut or otherwise separate chicken into desired chunk sizes and return to the pot. All the 2 cups of broth to cool to room temperature before proceeding. After cooled, return the pot of chicken and broth to a boil while making the dumplings.
On a large flat surface, make a mound with all of the flour. Make a well in the center of the mound. Crack both eggs into the mound and mix into the flour, maintaining the well and the mound. It’ll be lumpy. Don’t worry. Slowly add the broth to the well, mixing into the flour by hand until you have soft but not sticky dough. This may not use all of the broth. Return any remaining broth to the pot.
Roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness with a well floured rolling pin. Re-flour the surface as needed. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the dough into roughly 1″ by 2″ pieces, or 2″ by 4″, or whatever your preferred dumpling size. Mine usually end up lots of different sizes. They all cook fine provided they’re all about the same thickness.
Once the pot has returned to a rolling boil, drop the dumplings one at a time into the pot. Make sure not to drop them on top of each other or you’ll end up with a big ball of dough! And don’t stir for the same reason! Just move around as you drop them, making sure that each one is submerged for at least a bit before returning to that same location. Use a wooden spoon to nudge open a space to drop dumplings as needed, or help the occasional one submerge. Again, do not stir!
Continue simmering until dumplings are cooked through, about 20 minutes. This could take longer if you made thicker dumplings! To check the dumplings, remove one from the pot and cut in half. If there’s any whiter area in the middle, it’s not done yet; throw it back and wait a bit longer.
You can add other veggies to the chicken as it cooks and remove to eat as a side dish.
I don’t usually mix the dumplings on a flat surface, preferring to start them in a large mixing bowl. My well always seems to leak as I add the broth!
Mom no longer makes dumplings from scratch now that she’s older and not typically feeding a crowd. She instead will buy frozen dumplings, saying they work quite well! And I do mean dumplings, not large egg noodles or biscuits.
For a thicker broth, leave extra flour on the dumplings as you add them back into the pot.
Dessert Dish: Mom uses this dumpling recipe to make a dessert as well, using water or milk instead of chicken broth. She said her mom used to do this when she didn’t want to go to the trouble of making a pie. Prepare the dumplings as described above. Combine the dumplings in a slow cooker with a can of cherry pie filling. It’s easy and delicious!
