Recipe : Chicken Stew

Looking for a good way to use up leftover bits of chicken, I thought, how about chicken stew?  Chicken and dumplings?  A quick online search brought me here:  http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-stew-with-herb-dumplings-211502   The recipe is good!  I didn't have all the ingredients called for so I just went with what I had, and the flavor still turned out very good.  I definitely used too much broth for the amount of filler ingredients I had, though, so it was more soupy than I'd have liked.  And the dumplings were a total fail - they sank instead of floating, so they didn't work out.  But I would definitely make this again, using more chicken, more veggies, and more attention to the dumplings.  I've abbreviated the recipe slightly to reflect my purpose, which was to use the broth and leftover meat from the previous day's chicken dinner.


Chicken Stew with Herbed Dumplings

Ingredients:


cooked chicken, about 3-4 lbs
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
2 cups fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups carrots, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups button mushrooms, halved
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white potatoes, diced small
1 cup green peas, frozen or fresh
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups coconut milk or regular milk
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 teaspoon fines herbes
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste



Herb Dumplings
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 extra-large egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon oregano or 1/2 teaspoon fines herbes




In a large saucepan, melt butter on medium heat. Add the onions, fennel, carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic, and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, one minute more. Add potatoes, peas, stock, coconut milk, oregano, thyme (or fines herbes) and nutmeg. Season to taste. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring often (you can make dumplings at this point). Stir in the chicken and 2 tbsp parsley.

Prepare the dumplings: Mix flour, baking powder, salt, oregano and parsley in a medium bowl. Combine egg and milk and stir into dry ingredients. Mix gently with a fork until a soft dough is formed.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dumpling dough on the surface of the chicken stew (you should get about 15 dumplings); cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Do not peek - the steam is what cooks your dumplings through.

Spoon portions of chicken, sauce, vegetables, and dumplings into soup plates and serve immediately.