Yes, those are chicken and dumplings. Or if you're a Southern girl like me, dumplins. And they are even better than they look! This is a pot full of comfort food, though it isn't one of my healthier recipes, it goes over really well at group gatherings and freezes well.
What? Share my secret "family" recipe??? I suppose ;)
Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplins (Dumplings, if you have to have the "g")
3 or 4 good sized boneless skinless chicken breasts (you want about 2 pounds of meat, and I like Perdue)
1.5 boxes of no salt added chicken broth
1 can each of Healthy Request cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of frozen corn
1 cup of frozen pea and carrot mix
Spices to taste: garlic powder, salt, pepper, and allspice
2 cans of Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk flaky biscuits
OK. Now comes the hard part. Just kidding, I'm not into complicated recipes, usually. So you want to add the soup and chicken broth to the crock pot and give it a good whisk. This is a good time to add the spices and taste, remembering that you can always add more after the chicken is cooked. Add the frozen veggies and give it a stir. Then plop in those chicken breasts, turn it on high for 4.5 hours or low for 8.
Go to Target, pick up the dry cleaning, spend lunch at Monkey Joes with the little man, pick up some groceries, come home for nap time, nap, and it's about time to pull out the chicken and shred it. Or some variation of the above :)
So when the timer goes off, you want to pull out the chicken, and you'll probably need a large fork or spoon because it's going to want to fall apart for you. Use two forks or a knife, whatever you are more comfortable with, and shred that chicken!
Add it back into the pot, and give it a good stir, taste it to see if your spices need adjusting, and if you are like me and like the thick gravy more than soup, mix up 3 tablespoons of flour or cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the remaining broth and stir it up until you get all the little globs mashed up, and add it into the pot with another good stir. (I usually add it through my little mesh strainer just to make sure I got all the little globs, but I'm kind of funny about those things) Pop the lid back on so your pot and contents stay hot.
Now, my crock pot comes off the base and can go in the oven. If yours does this, too, preheat your oven to 350. If it doesn't then no worries, just clear the timer and turn it back to high.
Now for the Dumplins! Take one can plus half (4 biscuits) of the other can and cut them into quarters. Put those delicious little bits of dough on top of your chicken base and push them down into the liquid. They won't stay all the way down, but you want to get a coating of the liquid on the tops. If you are going the oven route, grab a piece of foil and spray the side you are going to put against the biscuits, and cover them loosely. Pop that bad boy into your preheated oven for 15 minutes, then you are going to pull off the foil and stir the dumplins into the liquid/chicken/vegetable goodness, recover loosely and put it back in for another 15 minutes.
If your crock pot doesn't come off the base, then (I'm so sorry, but it takes longer this way) put the lid on, make sure it is on high, and leave those dumplins to cook for another hour to hour and 15 minutes, checking them and stirring them in after about 45 minutes. There is nothing worse than "gummy" dumplins, so patience is required for this part!
Now is the time to decide if you are going to bake the other 4 biscuits to go alongside your chicken and dumplin(g)s, or use them for breakfast or dessert. Totally up to you.
OK, the 15 minutes is past. Pull your crock pot out of the oven, give it another stir and serve!
And I would love it if you'd leave a link to your favorite comfort food recipe! I don't think you can ever have too many of those! Enjoy!
