Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
Salt & pepper
Onion powder & garlic powder
Chicken bouillon cubes (10)
3 cups SR flour + 1.5 cups extra (4.5 total)
1 cup water
1 egg
1/4 cup crisco shortening
White pepper
2 tbs butter (optional)
1/2 cup heavy cream or 1/2 & 1/2 (optional)
Directions:
Boil chicken breasts in a large pot of water. (1 gallon and 1 pint if you want to measure it.) Season with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste.
Once chicken is cooked and easy to shred, remove from water.
Add the chicken bouillon cubes to broth.
Meanwhile, start with 3 cups of flour. Add the water (1 cup), egg, and shortening.
Mix dough with your hands. You will have to add more flour. Add a handful at a time until dough is a play doh consistency. It will be pretty thick and not sticky.
Once dough is at the play doh consistency, divide into 4 parts.
Starting with the first part, roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface until very thin, almost to where you can see through it.
Using a pizza cutter, slice into small squares or rectangles. (See photo.)
Making sure the broth is at a rolling boil, slowly add dumplin's into broth. Add half the first batch of dumplin's. Shake pan with your hands to stir, DO NOT USE A SPOON or it will tear up the dumplin's. Add the next half, top with some white pepper, then shake again.
Continue this process until all 4 quarters of the dough are in the broth. Never using a spoon, always shaking by hand.
Cover and let simmer on low about 10 minutes until dumplin's are just perfect.
Add in the chicken (you'll want to shred it), butter, and cream. At this point, you can gently stir with a spoon.
Serve and ENJOY this classic comfort food.
Notes:
Your first time making this will be more time consuming and trial & error. Just making sure the dough is right, learning how to get it rolled out and cut in a timely manner. Do not give up! Once you get it down, you'll have it down forever!
This recipe is credited to Hoyt Tidwell. He doesn't add the butter and cream at the end, but I prefer the creaminess it adds to the dish.
Be careful not to overcook the dumplin's. No one likes mushy dumplin's!
Pictured above is what the dumplin's should look like right before they go into the broth.
I hope you make this and enjoy it with others! A timeless classic with very few ingredients. It's definitely a crowd pleaser!
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