Making An Effort Monday

In an effort to make more of the things I love -- good food, pretty things, and organized spaces -- I bring you Making An Effort Monday!

I've never made Chicken and Dumplings before, and GET THIS: I've never even EATEN it before.  I know, weird, right?  Many, many moons ago, my mom gave me a "Quick Cooking" magazine of some sort, and I pulled out a few recipes, one being Quick Chicken and Dumplings, but I was never brave enough to try it.  The other day I was making a grocery list and told Jeremy to go through my recipes binders to see if there were any new recipes he wanted me to try, and he landed on this.  I complied because I am an AWESOME person.

Ahem.

So, the recipe.  I have no idea how this compares to other Chicken and Dumpling recipes, but here is what I did.

Quick Chicken and Dumplings

INGREDIENTS

4 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup sliced celery (I skipped this, because NO CELERY.  NO.  GROSS.  NEVER.)

1/2 cup sliced carrots (I probably use more than this.  I love carrots.)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon dried parsley 

3 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

For the dumplings:

2 cups Bisquick

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

dash ground nutmeg

2/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

DIRECTIONS

1.  in a 5-quart dutch oven or kettle, combine broth, celery, carrots, bay leaf, and parsley.  Bring to boil.

2.  For dumplings, combine Bisquick, thyme, and nutmeg.  Stir in milk and parsley until just moistened.  Drop by tablespoons onto boiling broth.

3.  Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes; cover and cook 10 minutes longer.  With a slotted spoon, remove dumplings to a serving dish; keep warm.

4.  Bring broth to boil.  Reduce heat; add chicken and heat through.  Remove bay leaf.  Spoon over dumplings.

TA DA!

Is this even what Chicken and Dumplings is supposed to look like?  I desperately wanted to do a Google Image search for pictures to see if this was right.  But I didn't.  I'm plucky like that.  But DON'T tell me if this is NOT what it was supposed to look like, okay? I may be plucky, but I'm still sensitive.

Anyway, Jeremy said it was good, and his mom used to make it all the time, so he knows the basic concept of the dish.  But of course, like I've mentioned before, Jeremy is not the best food critic because he wants to keep the food coming and is likely afraid of repurcussions if he gave something a bad review.  At any rate, I liked it as well.  I liked it enough to put it in the regular rotation!  Bravo, Chicken and Dumplings!


Brag about your own efforts in the comments section.  I THRIVE on comments.  Seriously.  So leave some.  On every post.  Do it.  DO IT.


Happy Monday!