Let me first say that I’ve only had chicken and dumplings once. I really enjoyed it and when I saw a recipe for it on The Pioneer Woman’s site, I thought I’d try it out. I’ve never gone wrong with one of her recipes, so I dove right in.
Yummy, chicken! (Sorry)
I knew what the dish was supposed to look like (click here to see), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that my dish ended up looking the same. I can tell you exactly where I veered off the cooking path and ended up alone in the middle of a corn field scratching my head…okay, not really, but you get the point. I had a feeling this culinary journey of mine would truly be an adventure and this week was no exception!
I blame the dumplings. I’ve never made them before, and I followed the recipe to a “T”, but it seems the cooking gods didn’t want them to turn out just right. I believe the issue was that I had put too much liquid in the dumpling batter. I reviewed the measurements again to make sure I put the right amounts in the batter, and I did, so I added a bit more of the dry ingredients to try to thicken the dumplings more. It resembled pancake batter rather than more of a biscuit consistency, so I wasn’t sure what to expect as I continued but I’m not a quitter, so I carried on.
Let me stop you here…if you want your chicken and dumplings to look like The Pioneer Woman’s, then throw away your dumplings and start over adding less liquid, so it’s more of a biscuit-like batter. If you are feeling adventurous, as I was, then throw caution to the wind and see what happens.
I dropped spoonfuls of that runny batter into the broth when it was time and cooked it. When I took the lid off, I knew that these dumplings were too gooey. I thought maybe if I stirred them a bit they would separate into little dumplings, but alas, this did not occur. Instead, it made a rather thick, creamy soup, if you will. The end result reminded me a lot of Panera Bread’s creamy chicken and wild rice soup (sans the wild rice), which happens to be my favorite soup of theirs, so I embraced this development and served it for dinner.
As I dished it up, I couldn’t stop laughing. I’m not used to recipes turning out so radically different than I imagined, and I could only imagine my roommate’s reaction as I shoved this creamy dish at her. She was over the moon about it, and I reluctantly had to agree. The flavor was fabulous and we both cleaned our bowls. So I guess that you could say this was a happy accident. I suppose the point I want to drive home is that regardless of whether your dumplings turn out perfectly or not, you can’t go wrong with this dish. It will still be uber delicious! I do plan to attempt this dinner again and when I conquer the recipe and create a brothy dish with true dumplings – which I will – I will be sure to let you know how it goes.
Click here for the recipe and my step by step instructions.
0
Leave a Reply