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There is no better comfort food than that of a good bowl of old fashioned chicken and dumplings. That being said, there is nothing worse than an under cooked, or rubbery dumpling in your bowl, much less one being dropped from your mouth back into said bowl.

I adapted this recipe from one of Tyler Florence’s recipes a couple of years ago, and if I could, I would have it every day. Ok, maybe not every day… but I do love me some goooood soup!

Of course, Tyler’s recipe starts out with roasting your own 3 pound chicken stuffed with lemon, onion, and garlic, along with fresh herbs like thyme, parsley, and rosemary. He then makes his own stock from the carcass/meat. While I love to do both because I have my wonderful Farberware Rotisserie, and homemade stock rocks, I don’t always want to make it such a big production, nor do I have the time to do so on a weeknight.

In lieu of all that, you do need some chicken. I like to use chicken breasts. Read ‘Pound Your Chicken’ in order to make it as tender as possible, and so it cooks quickly and evenly. You could saute it in some butter and oil, with some more fresh herbs, or bake it in a pan sprayed with olive oil at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I prefer the quick saute.

However your cook the chicken, cook it first and set it aside to cool. You will need to either shred it or cube it. Shredded chicken, with all of its texture, holds more of the sauce so that’s what I do.

I personally think the key to this recipe are the dumplings, and the ‘Supreme Sauce’ as he calls it.

Tyler starts off with 2 quarts of water for his stock. Thats 64oz. It will reduce about 1/3 to get it’s full flavor so we can start with a 49oz can (48 ounces is six cups) of Swanson’s Chicken stock (Stock quality matters). You want to give it some extra flavor, so throw in some of the herbs that he suggests; just a couple fresh sprigs of Thyme, Parsley, and Rosemary. You could even toss in a clove of rough cut garlic and a quarter of a small onion.

You will want to let some of the flavors come out without reducing it too much, so I put it on a low simmer and cover it to keep the steam in for about 20 minutes.

While that is stewing up some incredible flavor, you can make the dumpling batter:

Dumpling Recipe:

2 Cups flour
1 Tblspn baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Eggs
3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk (Great sub: a tablespoon of lemon juice to a cup of whole milk).

His instructions:

To prepare dumplings: Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and milk together; pour the liquid in the dry ingredients and gently fold. Mix just until the dough comes together, the batter should be thick and cake-like. Set aside and prepare the Supreme Sauce.

Supreme Sauce:

2 Tblspn butter
1 Tblspn oil
1 Tblspn flour
1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup flour
Your chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream

Strain your chicken broth into a bowl and set aside.

In a large pot (My 2 cents: the pot should be much more wide than tall)melt butter and heat oil over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, garlic, and bay leaves. Saute until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour to make a roux. Continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes to coat the flour and remove the starchy taste. Slowly pour in the strained chicken stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Let the sauce simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Stir in heavy cream.

Fold the reserved shredded chicken into the sauce and bring up to a simmer. Using 2 spoons, carefully drop heaping tablespoons full of the dumpling batter into the simmering mixture. The dumplings should cover the top of the sauce but should not be touching or too crowded.

More of my 2 cents: Chicken noodle soup wouldn’t be, if it weren’t for the noodles. I like my dumplings bite size and they do puff up. I say drop and plop them in smaller portions so they end up bite size, and put in as many as will fit. They float on the top of the liquid so there is, definitely, a limit. Experiment with a few to get the dumpling size to your liking. They can touch as long as you aren’t a speed demon going so fast that they stick together. Just take your time.

Poach the dumplings for about 10-12 minutes until they are firm and puffy. Ladle into a bowl and say… Mmm, Mmm, Better!