Mom's Chicken and Dumplings

When John and I were first married, I got on a short Pinterest kick (like I do from time to time) where I decide that I needed to actually try a few of the hundreds of recipes I was pinning... One of the recipes I tried was chicken and dumplings. The reviews for this meal were great! One person even said that their usually picky kids asked for seconds! Unfortunately, the new recipe we tried out ended up tasting pretty bland to us and not at all what I was hoping for.

That was when I realized how silly it was to try a random online recipe for this meal, when my mom makes the best chicken and dumplings ever! I called her up shortly afterwards for her recipe and have only made her version of chicken and dumplings ever since.

The first thing you do to make this meal is put the rice in a rice cooker or start it cooking on the stove.

Next, peel and slice 3-4 carrots. Add them to a sauce pan with water and leave them to boil. After the carrots are on the stove, cook 1 1/2 cups frozen peas according to the package directions.

While the vegetables are cooking, start on the drop biscuit dough. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Use 2 knives or a pastry blender to cut in the butter (or you can use your hands which is what I always do...). Add the milk to form a dough. Add extra milk if the dough is not soft enough or more flour if it's too sticky to work with. Next, separate the dough into eight sections and roll each section into a small ball. Put the balls on a greased baking pan and slightly flatten them with your hand. Bake them in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes.

While the biscuits are baking, boil 3 chicken bouillon cubes and 3 cups of water in a large saucepan to create a chicken stock. Once the granules are completely dissolved, set the pan aside to cool for a few minutes. In a cup or small bowl, mix the oil and flour together. Whisk this mixture into the chicken stock without letting it get too hot. Once it's combined, you can heat the stock back up.

Now, add the cooked carrots, peas, and a can of cooked, diced chicken. You can also cook and cut up a regular chicken breast to add instead of canned chicken. I've done both. It usually depends on how lazy I'm feeling that day. lol.

The last step to do is to take the biscuits out of the oven when they're done and place them on top of the soup in the saucepan.

Just as a side note... my mom always cooked the biscuits the more traditional way for this dish. She would let the soup come to a boil and then place the uncooked biscuits on top. She would then reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pot with a lid, and let it cook for 15 minutes.

Honestly, I prefer this way as it makes the biscuits softer and more moist. The only downside is that the rice almost always burns on the bottom of the pan... So, since John would rather have less moist biscuits and not burned rice, we use the oven.

This recipe is one of my favorite's from growing up. Aaaand it's great to make in the winter time when you want a meal that will warm you up from the inside out!