The first leg of the chicken's trip would take her to Charlotte. From there she would wing it!

Here we are in April, and I'm writing for March. Booo procrastination! I finished two recipes in March, the first one being Chicken and Dumplings from my book Mad Hungry. I bought the book from work a few years ago, and we no longer carry it. I have made a couple things out of it that have turned out great though. This now being one of them!

Chicken and Dumplings

1 3- to 4-pound chicken
1 onion, halved but root end left intact
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
4 springs of fresh parsley
1 turnip, trimmed and chopped
2 parsnips, coarsely chopped
8 to 10 cups of water
1 tbsp coarse salt

Dumplings:
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp chopped fresh dill or parsley

To make the chicken, place the chicken into a large pot with a tight-fitting lid. Add the onion, carrot, celery, parsley, turnip, and parsnips to the pot and barely cover with the water.

Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to a simmer, partially cover, and simmer for 50 minutes. Lift out the chicken and vegetables. Discard the onion halves and parsley springs. Continue to simmer the broth for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the salt. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and shred into large pieces. You'll have 4 cups of shredded chicken. Used 2 to 4 cups as desired.  (I used it all!)

To make the dumplings, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk and dill or parsley to combine.

Drop the dough, 1 tbsp at a time, onto the simmering broth. Cover and cook until the dumplings have cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Carefully return the shredded chicken and the vegetables to the pot. Reheat for 1 minute. Serve in wide bowls with big spoons.

This turned out super delicious! I had one problem though. I totally forgot to measure the water, and just filled the pot in the beginning to just below the top of the chicken. When the chicken was done there was hardly any broth left to drop the dumplings into. So I just added some chicken stock to it until it was a few inches deep in the pot. It worked like a charm! So if you try it, and still have the same problem, that will totally work. I do feel like it ended up adding more liquid than you're supposed to have at the end, since chicken and dumplings tend to be more like a stew. In my opinion, the more soup-like way it turned out was even better. Soup is one of my favorites! Other than that the only change I made was using dry parsley in the dumplings, and forgetting to put it in the soup. You will know the dumplings are done when the rise to the top.

And as you all know, chicken farmer's love to share a good yolk.  So here's another gem...
The chicken went to the middle of the road. She was going to lay it on the line!

Heheh Next up, another soup! What a surprise :)