Granny's Chicken & Dumplings
Submitted by Rubylee4
Granny’s chicken and dumplings made the Southern way with rolled, cut flat dumplings and a whole chicken pressure-cooked into rich stock. Old-fashioned scratch comfort food from a hand-me-down recipe.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
45 minREADY
1 hrsGranny’s chicken and dumplings is the Southern version, not the fluffy biscuit-style dumplings up north. These are flat, rolled, knife-cut squares of egg-rich dough, the kind that go silky and slick in the broth as they cook, almost like a thick wide noodle. Pressure cooking a whole hen first builds a stock with body that thin store-bought broth can’t touch. The cardinal rule is right in the directions, keep the pot at a rolling boil when you add the dumplings, drop them in alternating with the chicken so they cook through immediately, and do not fold them or you’ll get gummy lumps. Then clamp the lid on and walk away for 10 minutes, no peeking. The dumplings need that closed environment to set up tender instead of tough. Season generously at the end, salt and pepper are what separate a great pot of dumplings from a forgettable one.
Pro Tips
- Roll the dough thinner than a nickel as the directions say, thick dumplings turn doughy and pasty in the broth.
- Use cool, not warm, chicken stock to bind the dough, warm liquid will start cooking the egg and toughen the gluten.
- Flour the cut dumplings generously, that loose flour thickens the broth into a silky gravy as they cook.
- Skip the MSG and garlic salt called for in the original and just use plain salt and fresh garlic, modern palates do fine without the umami booster.
Variations
Ingredients
Directions
Cook hen in pressure cooker with lots of salt and MSG, plus 1 teaspoon garlic salt.
Place 15-lb weight on top and cook over medium-high heat.
When the weight starts inchpopping inch 2 to 3 times a minute, cook 15 minutes.
Cool the chicken and de-bone.
Mix flour, salt, ½ teaspoon MSG and a little less than ½ teaspoon baking powder.
Blend eggs with 1¼ Cup cool chicken stock from pot.
Stir into flour a little at a time.
On flour-covered board, knead dough and roll it out until thinner than a nickel.
Cut dumplings.
Stack well-floured dumplings onto plate.
In large pot, bring the rest of the stock to a boil over medium-high heat.
Add the chunks of chicken alternately with the dumplings; quickly pushing them below the surface of the liquid as you add them.
DON’T FOLD THE DUMPLINGS! Keep mixture boiling at all times.
Lower heat; cover and cook for 12 to 15 minutes.
Don’t lift the lid for the first 10 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon pepper to broth --andgt; might need to add additional stock during the cooking process.
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