Chicken and Dumplings the Semi-Homemade Way

We are big soup eater to begin with but once the temperature drops well we eat a lot more soup for dinner. Something just so comforting about a nice bowl of yummy goodness to make you warm and fuzzy inside. I realized I had a problem last week when I think most of the meals I planned or had in mind was soup/stew type recipes. So this week I have to try and not do that again...

The reason I decided to make this recipe below was because Mike came home from work one day and told me that the guys said this was a pretty good recipe. I just think it is kind of funny that a bunch of engineer/tech guys were talking about a soup like that...and well I had to see what they were talking about for myself.


Chicken & Dumblings
Sandra Lee, Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
1 whole store-bought roast chicken (about 2 pounds)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 container (7 ounces) chopped onions
6 cans (14 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 container (14 ounces) pre-cut carrot sticks, chopped
1 container (14 ounces) pre-cut celery sticks, chopped
1 roll (16.3 ounces) golden buttermilk biscuit
1 can (10.5 ounces) condensed chicken gravy

Directions

Remove skin from chicken and shred meat into large pieces. Set aside.

In a small frying pan, add vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, add chopped onions and saute until soft.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, add broth, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, carrots, celery, and sauteed onions. Bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes to soften vegetables, and then add shredded chicken. Continue to simmer while making dumplings.

While stew is simmering, prepare dumplings. Open can and remove biscuits. On a lightly floured surface, roll each biscuit to 1/4-inch thick. With a knife, cut each biscuit into 4 pie-pieces. Set aside.

Skim surface for any scum that has risen to top. Stir in chicken gravy.

With the stew still simmering over low heat, stir in dumplings a few at a time. Once all dumplings are in to pot, cover with a tight fitting lid and cook for 10 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and serve piping hot.

Review: Overall this is a good recipe and I actually felt like I was eating some homemade chicken soup with all the stuff that was in it. I don't know why this bothers me but when a recipe calls for you to buy already cut up stuff. Just from a budget standpoint it just cost more then me buying a whole bag of carrots and doing it myself. It does save you a little bit of time and I will buy the already cut up mushrooms because those are a pain to cut up. When I cut up the biscuit dough at first I thought I did not have enough of them but as you can see in the pictures above the puff up a lot. Not sure I will make it again but Mike did take it to work the next day for lunch...so I know he liked it.