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Sorry about the marriage, but maybe I can help with the stock.
I very highly recommend making chicken and dumplings in stock as opposed to broth. Broth and stock are different things; broth is made from meat, where stock is usually made from bones and cartilage. What I did was first make a broth just by boiling the chicken in water. Take the meat off and you've got a carcass - that's going to your key to stock.
There's collagen in the bones and connective tissues, and if you can get it to disolve into a broth, it adds a layer of flavor depth, and a great mouth feel that you just don't get with broth. It sort of coats the tongue, almost like fat but different.
I've read a couple of different ways to make stock, but as far as I'm concerned, slow simmering is best. It takes hours, which is why it's not done too often, but oh man is it worth it.
Meh.. marriages work or fail, it happens. But thanks for the comfort.
With regards to the stock/broth, thank you.. I might just have to try that. Do you have a ratio of chicken to water to start it all off? Any seasonings or anything go into either the broth or stock? You said it takes hours, but there's a difference between 2 and 10... can you guide me the right way?
Thanks again for the input, I appreciate it. Rep to you!
Do you have a ratio of chicken to water to start it all off? Any seasonings or anything go into either the broth or stock? You said it takes hours, but there's a difference between 2 and 10... can you guide me the right way?
Sure - fortunately it's not an exact science like baking; you've got tons of room for error and it's almost impossible to ruin.
I use my big stock pot. I have no clue how much it holds, but if I had to guess - I dunno, maybe 16 qt? But I don't come close to filling it up, only enough to fully cover the chicken. I don't put in anything but salt when I'm cooking the chicken, but once I take the mmeat off, and the chicken goes back into the pot, then I add carrots, celery, and onion. Just really rough cut on the vegetables. Spices; I use mostly sage, and majoram and thyme.
Bring it to a boil, then back it down to just the edge of boiling and cook for hours. I'd shoot for between 4 and 8. You'll get some foamy scum on the surface that you should scrape off every hour, then strain it through a fine mesh screen or some sort of filter. You can then chill it and remove the fat if you want - I don't, I like the fat, but that's up to you.
I make mine by boiling chicken pieces in water seasoned w/ chicken bouillon. Skin on to add just a little fat. chop up onions, garlic, carrots and celery while chicken is boiling. Take out chicken, add veggies, chop up chicken and discard the skin. add chicken back along w/ pepper and some salt. add one or two cans cream of chicken or celery. mix biscuit mix and milk, add by tablespoons. cook 20 min. cover. cook 15 more minutes. devour.
I want to say she used a biscuit dough (like Pillsbury) for the dumplings. But I can't, for the life of me, figure out what she did with the chicken in the water to make it so darn good (and the dumplings, simple as they were, were delicious)!
They say, for every cloud, there's a silver lining, and for that short, bad marriage, that dish sure was the silver lining!
Now that you have the stock, here is the "dumplings" part. We do it two ways. One is "cheating" and that is using canned biscuits for the dumplings. Buy the CHEAPEST no brand biscuits (usually about 4 for $1). Once you have your stock and chicken done you take the biscuits and tear pieces off of each one, roll in flour and drop in. The flour helps thicken the sauce as well. Make them too big and they can be doughy. I find that usually 3-4 pieces per biscuit comes out best. Or you can make them from scratch which isn't too hard OR there are some frozen ones that are actually pretty good. They are the flat noodle looking ones. I don't care which is used as I'll eat it period.
We LOVE Chicken n Dumplings. MUST have plenty of salt and PEPPER to give it flavor and no veggies added either.
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