Sunday Dinner

Thank you for all the sweet comments about Margot. We are very excited.

Sunday was just one of those days. We got a flat tire, I had one of my very emotional pregnant days, Les Schwab was closed and we both needed some comfort food. So I decided to make chicken stew with dumplings. Granted this may not be the most traditional of summer meals, especially for an 85 degree day, but it was delicious. I made this up as I went along and couldn't have been more pleased with how it turned out. Chris enjoyed his with a cold beer while I had mine with a tall glass of cold whole milk.

Chicken Stew with cornmeal Cheddar dumplings*

6 pieces of dark meat chicken (I used drumsticks*)
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
olive oil
3 medium carrots
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
4-6 potatoes (depending on size) either red, Yukon or new potatoes
1 quart chicken broth
sprigs of fresh oregano and/or thyme

for dumplings:
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese
one egg
2 TB olive oil
2 TB milk

Place the four in a pie plate and generously season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in dutch oven or soup pot. Dredge chicken pieces in flour and brown well in the pot. While chicken browns, dice onion, carrots, potatoes and garlic. You could add celery to this but I didn't have any. Once chicken is browned add onion, garlic, carrots, and potatoes. Cook about ten minutes. Add broth and fresh herbs. Bring stew to boil, reduce, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove chicken pieces and pull off meat to add back into soup pot. Make dumplings by mixing grated cheese, flour, cornmeal, baking soda and salt and pepper into a mixing bowl. In smaller bowl beat egg and add milk and oil. With fork combine egg mixture to flour mixture and mix until just combine. Place four dumplings on top of soup, cover and cook at low heat for 10-15 minutes until dumplings are cooked through (knife should come out clean). Enjoy!

You could make this with leftover chicken or meat from a rotisserie chicken. I would just start with browning veggies and add the chicken with the broth. However, cooking the chicken on the bones in the soup makes and extra rich and nutritious broth.

*The dumpling recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
*This is a great way to use drumsticks which I sometimes have a hard time using up. Often I buy whole chickens, cut them up, and then am left with drumsticks. This week we actually bought a package of drumsticks because they were in the clearance meat section at Market of Choice (for you locals). This was an amazing deal. The package of 10 organic drum sticks was $2.70 and simply needed to be used or frozen that day. I used half and froze half.