Chicken and Dumplings

I have been making this for many years and it is a favorite of Amby and Zac's. Per his request, I made it for Zac's birthday dinner and decided I would post it. It has been in my head all this time, so I will try to communicate it so that it actually makes sense.

I make the dumplings out of bisquick and buttermilk, but you can make them from canned biscuit dough. It is easier and cuts down on the mess, but, to me, they just aren't as good. I do not think this "recipe" has any redeeming nutritional value, but it is very high in yumminess and comfort.


Chicken and Dumplings

4 chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
flour or cornstarch for thickening
3 cups of Bisquick
1 cup buttermilk
salt & pepper to taste

Cook chicken in 8 cups of boiling water until tender. Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool.
Strain water and return water to pot. Stir in chicken soup. Heat to boiling. In a small bowl, add about 1/2 cup flour or cornstarch to about 1-1/2 cups water and stir thoroughly until smooth. Add this to soup so that it becomes thick. Repeat if necessary to achieve the desired thickness.

In a medium bowl, stir bisquick and buttermilk together until stiff. Drop one spoonful at a time into the boiling soup mixture. This makes alot of dumplings, by the way. When the pot becomes full of dumplings, push the new dumplings underneath the first layer you dropped in that are still cooking. Boil for about 15 minutes, uncovered. They will puff up while they cook. Shred chicken and add to pot. Heat through. (Note: Some of the dumplings will dissipate into the soup. That is why the dumpling mixture needs to be as thick as possible.)


The bisquick and buttermilk mixture should look like this:
Drop by scant spoonfuls into boiling soup mixture and cook for about 15 minutes:


For Wonder Boy's birthday dinner, I served this with fried okra, field peas, and sliced tomatoes. We finished feeling agonizingly full, yet imperturbably comforted.