Chicken and Dumplings for Exhausted Cooks

Teeny Templeton's

Chicken and Dumplings for Exhausted Cooks

                                                             Serves 6-8

3 or 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

3/4 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 cup sliced carrots

Chicken stock (1 large box)

1 can cream of chicken soup

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

salt and pepper

2 frozen deep dish pie crusts

Place chicken, onions, celery, and carrots in a Dutch oven or deep soup pot. Cook on low flame until chicken and carrots are cooked and tender. Remove chicken and set aside.

Thaw pie crusts.

While chicken cools and crusts thaw, add cream of chicken soup to the Dutch oven. (The soup blends better if you lightly whisk the mixture; or put soup in a bowl, add broth, whisk, and pour into Dutch oven.)

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and add the bits to the Dutch oven. Stir.

You'll need to check the onion-carrots-celery broth. If it gets to thick, add more chicken stock. You don't want a watery consistency, but you don't want it thick like ice cream, either!

Now is a good time to make a pot of white rice.

While it cooks, let's make the dumplings.

Turn up the mixture to medium flame (med heat).

Sprinkle flour onto a cutting board. Place 1 pie crust on the floury board. Cut the crust into 1-inch strips. Set the strips on top of the bubbling onion/celery mixture. As Aunt Bluette used to say, the strips will "sink down."

Repeat the procedure with the second pie crust.

Cook about 10-15 more minutes (you don't want the dumplings to be "raw").

Serve your chicken and dumplings over white, long-grained rice. Cornbread is a nice compliment.

If you have leftovers, you can make:

Chicken 'n Dumplings Pot Pie

Heat dumplings. You will need to add another can of cream of chicken soup and more chicken stock.

Microwave a bag of green peas and a bag of sliced carrots. (Actually, add any frozen vegetable you wish--it's your pie!)

Add vegetables to the dumpling mixture.

Thaw two sheets of puff pastry. Sprinkle sheets with flour. Using a rolling pin, gently roll out the sheets. Place one sheet in the bottom of a baking pan. Add the dumpling- vegetable mixture.

Place second puff pastry sheet on top of the dumpling mixture. Brush with egg wash.

Gather the puff pastry scraps and roll out. Crimp the edges of both crusts.

Take your favorite cookie cutter (I used an autumn leaf cutter) and cut out shapes. Place the shapes on top of the crust. Brush pieces with the egg wash.

Bake 350 degree oven about 25-45 minutes (depending on your oven) or until crust is brown and poofy. You might need to place tin foil around the edges if the crust browns unevenly.

Serves 4- 6.