Chicken & Dumplins

For the stew:
3 lb. chicken
2-4 t. vegetable oil
1/2 stick butter
2-4 carrots, sliced 1/4 in. thick
2 ribs celery, large chunks
1 large onion, minced
6 T. flour
1/4 c. coke or white wine
4 1/2 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. milk
2 t. thyme, minced
2 bay leaves

For the dumplins:
2 cups flour
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. milk
3 T. butter

For the stew:
Heat 2 T. oil in a large dutch oven over medium/high heat until very hot but not smoking. Salt and pepper chicken and place in hot oil. Cook until golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Take out chicken and remove browned skin. If you can't fit all the chicken in at once, then repeat these steps with the remaining chicken. Pour off oil from pan and then put in 1/2 stick of butter. When melted add the carrots, celery, onion and 1/4 t. salt and cook until soft, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the coke/wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, milk, thyme and bay leaves. Nestle the chicken into the pot. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 1 hour.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and allow to cool. Remove bay leaves and celery pieces from the broth and then let it set a while to allow the oil and fat to settle on top. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and shred. Skim off the fat from the broth with a spoon. Add chicken meat back into the broth. Return to a simmer. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
For the dumplins:
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Melt 3 T. butter and mix with 1 c. milk. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until incorporated.
Drop golf ball sized dumplins over the top of the stew, about 1/4 in. apart. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the dumplins have doubled in size and are no longer doughy, 15-18 minutes (you may wish to turn the dumplins about half way through cooking time.
This makes about 6 generous servings.

DRESSING, NOT STUFFING!!!

DRESSING
I used my my mom’s (which came from her mom, minus the oysters, yick) recipe and Mary Baker’s recipe and came up with my own.
Serves 10-15.
1 pan cornbread (see Breads post for my favorite recipe)
half loaf dried out french bread
3-4 slices whole wheat toast
Chicken Stock
3 eggs
1 onion, diced
2 sticks celery
1/2 stick butter
poultry seasoning
pinch of sage
salt
pepper
pinch of ground red pepper

Crumb the breads real fine. Soak with chicken broth until all is moist add seasons to your taste. Add eggs. Sautee onion and celery in butter and then add to breads. Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or so.

ASIAN

ROSE’S ORIENTAL NOODLES AND SMOKED CHICKEN
Rose Shen, my dear friend from Taiwan, taught me how to make this. She didn’t have a recipe, she just showed me and I wrote it down because I wanted to remember and try it myself.

Clean cut chicken pieces (like frying chicken) and cover with salt and any other seasoning that tastes good to you. Steam chicken with a little water until tender.
To smoke the chicken:
Cover the bottom of a big pot with foil and then put brown sugar on top of the foil. Pot chicken on a rack on top of the brown sugar. Melt sugar and as it burns, it will smoke the chicken. Allow chicken to brown, turning as necessary.

To make the noodles:
Boil the asian noodles. Chop your veggies (any fresh ones that you choice) and stir fry in a skillet. Add juice from the steamed chicken and then add the boiled noodles. Continue to stir fry and add any greens last. Season as needed.


ASIAN ALMOND CHICKEN
Serves 2.
1 chicken breast
oyster sauce
garlic, minced
onion
red bell pepper
cooking oil/butter
soy sauce
white wine vinegar
sugar
almonds
Marinate chicken in oyster sauce and minced garlic at least 1 hour. Mix vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, add leftover sauce from marinade. Chop almonds and toast. Cut onion and red pepper into strips (today I added thinly sliced carrots). Cut chicken to bite size or strips. Heat oil and butter in wok to very hot. Stir-fry chicken until golden and seared. Add veggies and stir fry until almost tender. Add sauce and stir fry until well coated. Serve immediately with rice, topping with toasted almonds.
(Updated 1/3/16)


ASIAN-STYLE LETTUCE WRAPS
It ain’t PF Chang’s, but it’s pretty good!

Serves 4.
1 med. onion, finely chopped
1 t. minced garlic
1 pound ground meat (your choice, I like beef, you also mix with 1/2 pound of two different kinds)
1 t. soy sauce
1 T. oyster sauce
1/2 c. finely chopped water chestnuts
8 pieces of crisp lettuce, large leaves.
1 T. sesame seeds, toasted

Spray skillet and heat. Cook onion, garlic, and meat until browned. Add soy and oyster sauces and water chestnuts, stir, reduce heat. Cook, uncovered for 5 min. stirring occasionally. Sprinkle sesames over meat before serving. Let each person roll their own meat into their lettuce as they eat it.
(I usually serve rice with this and sometimes Greg will eat his meat over the rice instead of in the lettuce.)

JAMBALAYA

JAMBALAYA MIX
Dot King gave me this recipe. It is handy to have some of this around already mixed.

1 c. uncooked long-grain rice
1 T. minced dried onion
1 T. green pepper flakes
1 T. dried parsley flakes
1 bay leaf
2 t. beef bouillon granules
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. black pepper
1/4 t. dried thyme
1/4 t. dried crushed red pepper
Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

JAMBALAYA
Bring mix, 3 c. water and 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce to boil in a dutch oven. Stir in 2 cups chopped meat of your choice (ham, chicken, sausage, shrimp)(it is tasty to use two different meats in one dish). Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20-25 min. or until rice is tender. Remove bay leaf.

Chicken

ANGEL CHICKEN
Serves 6
(Hermitage Church of Christ cookbook submitted by Aunt Carole)

1 1/2 pd. chicken
1/4 c. butter
1 (.70 oz.) package Italian dressing mix
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed golden mushroom soup
1/2 c. water
4 oz. cream cheese with chives and onion

Place chicken in crock pot. Melt butter and stir in dry dressing mix, soup, water and cream cheese until combined. Pour over chicken, cover and cook on low 4-5 hours. Serve chicken and sauce over hot cooked angel hair pasta and sprinkle with chives and Italian cheese.



EASY BARBECUE CHICKEN
(West Side cookbook, Denise Howard)
Serves 6.
1/2 c. catsup
2 T. cooking oil
1 T. jam
1 t. dry mustard
2 T. vinegar
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 T. brown sugar
1 t. worchestershire sauce
1/4 c. water
1 t. salt
In skillet combine all ingredients, except chicken. Add chicken pieces and cook over medium heat. Brown all sides. Cook until tender.



GREG’S FAVORITE CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE
(Caroline Davis)
5-6 chicken breasts, cooked
2 cans cream of chic soup
3 c. chicken broth
8 oz. sour cream
2 c. minute rice (uncooked)
1 pkg. crackers, crushed
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in baking dish. Mix together soup and sour cream, add broth and soup. Pour over chicken. Toast cracker crumbs in butter and then sprinkle over the casserole. Bake until brown and bubbly (about 30 min.)



CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE
(Dolores Lightfoot)
3/4 c. melted butter
1 can cream of mush.
1 soup can chic broth
1 lb. old English cheese or velveta, cubed
10 oz. cooked egg noodles
1 small jar pimento
1 chicken cooked and deboned
1/2 c. (or more) grated cheese
1/2 c. butter or margarine (melted)
1 c. cornflake crumbs
Combine butter, soup, broth and cheese. When cheese is melted, remove from heat. Cook noodles according to package directions but reduce cooking time a little. Mix noodles, chicken, sauce and pimento. Pour into casserole dish, top with grated cheese. Mix 1/2 c. melted butter with cornflake crumbs and spread over top. Bake at 400 degrees until bubbly.


HOT CHICKEN SALAD
(Mrs. England, my favorite professor at Harding.)
3 c. chicken
1/4 c. chicken broth
2 c. diced celery
2 T. diced onion
1 pimiento, cut up
1 c. salted almonds, chopped
3/4 c. mayonnaise
2 T. lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping 1 c. crushed potato chips and 1/2 c. grated cheese
Mix chicken with hot broth. Add remainder of ingredients; toss lightly. Bake about 15 minutes at 425 degrees or until bubbling. Add topping last 5 min. Serve