Chicken and Dumplings

Alright, for some reason I have been craving these for a bit, and they seem to be a famous comfort food.   I remember Mom didn't make them very often when I was a kid, but I remember liking it a lot when she did.  There are a couple of ways of making this recipe, and I chose to use the way Mom used to.  The alternative way is to roll out your dough and cut it into squares and pour all of your chicken and veggies in a casserole pan and then place your biscuit dumplings on top of it all and bake it.  My mom just makes basically a thickened chicken soup and then drops biscuit dough into the pot with the soup.   So that's the approach I used this time.  I hope you enjoy this tasty winter comfort food!

Chicken and Dumplings

3 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, diced fine
3 carrots, diced fine
3 medium potatoes, diced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 quarts chicken STOCK (not broth, there's a bit of a difference, which I will go over at the bottom of this post)
1 tsp each of poultry seasoning, sage, and thyme
salt and pepper

2 1/4 c Bisquick or other biscuit mix
2/3 c milk
(you can also make homemade biscuit dough if you like.  my recipe is posted here.)

Melt butter in a large saucepan or stock pot.  Add onions and saute til translucent.  Add celery and carrots and continue to cook.  Sprinkle flour over veggies and stir till veggies are coated well.  Pour in your chicken stock and then stir;  add potatoes and chicken, and bring to a boil, then simmer on medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes--till the chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender.  Add seasonings, and stir.

Mix your biscuit mix and milk together til you get a soft dough, but don't over mix.  Roll lightly into balls, and drop dumplings into your soup mixture, and then let cook for 5-10 minutes.  If you need to test them, take one out and cut it in half, it should look like bread inside but still have kind of a moist outside.

Serve warm.  You don't need any side dishes or anything for this because its kind of a one pot meal.  Makes it even better, not so many dishes to wash.  :)

NOTE:  When you see or hear the word stock versus the word broth, it basically means cooked down more.  So the flavors of stock are more concentrated and have more depth.  I am going to post my recipe for homemade chicken stock next, so check it out.  You can also buy stock at the grocery store in quart sized containers.  Yes, it is more expensive than broth because broth is faster to make and generally just made from chicken bones, rather than veggies too.