Chicken stew with dumplings, is a wonderfully nostalgic dish to make on a chilly evening as it is a classic, the aromas bringing back memories of childhood.
chicken stew and dumplings
The nutritious all-in-one meal can easily be scaled to accommodate the number of people you are planning on feeding, and can be made in a Dutch oven over a slow fire, or on a stove.
The stock can be store-bought in liquid or powder form, which is very convenient when out camping, or it can be home-made.
If you don’t have a recipe for homemade stock, try this one.
Store-bought stock tends to be quite high in salt and obviously has preservatives so your healthiest stock option is to make your own.
For the stew you can play around with the ingredients substituting various vegetables for the classic combination of carrots, peas and celery, depending on what you have available in your survival garden.
onion, garlic and carrots frying
Butternut, sweet potatoes, and green beans would work well, while aubergine will bring a rich creaminess to the mix. When I made this dish I used red peppers instead of celery, as that is what I had on hand.
Now for the dumplings – you want them to be light and fluffy, not rock hard balls of dough. My mother taught me that the less you handle the dough the lighter it will be.
close-up of a dumpling
When making scones, she emphasized a light touch and not over-mixing.
Since this is a survival recipe I found that instead of shaping the dough with an ice cream scoop, or rolling it into balls between floured hands, the simplest and fastest way is to take a dessert spoon of the dough that holds its shape, and gently ease it onto the top of the simmering stew.
Continue until all the dough has been used up, then put on the lid immediately.
I find a glass lid very useful as you can watch the dumplings rise without having to remove the lid to check, as removing the lid can make them go flat.
The quantity of dough for this recipe resulted in 8 decent size dumplings – enough for two per person as this stew is for 4 people.
I used a plain flour for these dumplings with a tablespoon of cornmeal added, and they were very soft, as I had run out of cake flour which one generally uses for a light dumpling.
Don’t try strong bread flours or whole wheat flours as you may get tough dumplings.
Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 40 mins
Total Time 55 mins
Servings 4 servings
Calories 486 kcal
Stew Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs chicken boneless thigh or breast cut into pieces of around 1 inch by 1…