Chicken Dinners
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An oldie and still a goodie. [Photograph: Yvonne Ruperti]

Notes: Use a good quality chicken for this dish. I use my hands to form dumpling mixture into a dough. Take care when stirring the dumplings in the broth, so that they don't break apart.

About the Author: Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide To Easy Artisan Bread. You can also watch her culinary stylings on the America's Test Kitchen television show. She presently lives in Singapore working on her new baking cookbook, and as a recipe developer for HungryGoWhere Singapore. Check out her blog: shophousecook.com . Follow Yvonne on Twitter.

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Ingredients

  • 1 whole small chicken, about 3 pounds
  • 2 medium onions, ends trimmed and quartered
  • 1 small head garlic, ends trimmed
  • 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
  • 1 bunch parsley, stems reserved, leaves chopped, divided
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice from one lemon
  • pinch nutmeg (optional)

Procedures

  1. Place chicken, onions, garlic, peppercorns, parsley stems, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add water to pot to just cover chicken (about 10 cups). Bring to boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to simmer. Cook until chicken is tender and falling off the bone, about 1 hour.

  2. While broth is simmering, make dumpling dough: In medium bowl, stir flour with 2 tablespoons butter, shortening, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, mashing with fork until mixture resembles coarse wet crumbs. Stir in milk until it forms a dough. Let sit about 20 minutes.

  3. When cooked, transfer chicken to plate. Strain stock and return to saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat until reduced to 6 cups. Skim fat from the top and season to taste with salt and ground pepper; keep warm. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones and shred into bite size pieces; reserve.

  4. On floured surface, roll dough into a rough 10- by 10-inch square about a quarter inch thick. Cut dough into 1 1/2-inch wide strips, then cut each strip into 1 1/2-inch squares.

  5. Return broth to simmer over medium heat. Add dumplings to broth, one at a time. Cover and simmer until dumplings have puffed slightly and are cooked through, stirring gently once or twice to make sure that they don't stick to each other. Return chicken to pot to heat through. Stir in 1/3 cup parsley leaves, lemon juice, nutmeg (if using), and serve.