Easy Chicken & Dumplings, Southern Living, January 2010:

Let’s just be honest with each other: there is nothing easy about Chicken & Dumplings, not even with this recipe.  This recipe is much easIER than most, and probably more fool-proof.  Fool-proof is a bonus, because after you’ve cooked pounds of chicken, chopped it, made dumplings, chopped veggies for half an hour…the whole mess just sticking together in the pot really creases me.

I start this recipe while the girls are napping (chop veggies and stew chicken).  Then the chicken cools in the fridge through the mid-afternoon, and there is nothing left but the assembly and cooking at dinnertime.  If you really want some Chicken & Dumplings, this isn’t a bad way to go.  It’s quite tasty.

32 oz. low-sodium chicken broth (I’m not big on low sodium broth, but this recipe gets too salty with full sodium broth.)

About 1.5 lbs shredded cooked chicken (3 cups) (I use thighs because I like dark meat in a stew.  Breasts might dry out in this recipe.)

1 can low fat cream of chicken soup (I’m not a big fan of low fat anything, but this recipe gets fatty pretty quickly.  I’d go with low fat soup.)

1/4 tsp poultry seasoning (I don’t have this in the house, but you can make it with: marjoram, sage, rosemary, black pepper, nutmeg, and thyme…hilarious right?  I don’t have poultry seasoning, but I have the 6 ingredients that make up poultry seasoning.)

1 can refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits (buttermilk is key…don’t get flaky…you’ll be sorry.)

2 carrots, diced (I diced 4, because I like carrots)

3 celery ribs, diced

Place biscuits on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/8th of an inch.  Cut into 1/2 inch wide slices.

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a heavy-bottomed pot.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes (stir a bit).  Increase heat and return to a low boil.

Drop strips into the boiling broth, 1 at a time.  Add carrots and celery.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring a bit to prevent dumplings from sticking.

And that’s it folks.  It came out thick and yummy.  Next time I might add a bit more chicken and cut the dumplings in half (both in quantity and in size).  I served it with a salad and it was more than filling.  It doesn’t come out at all like a soup.  It’s truly a thick stew.