Chicken and Dumplings

Today at work I almost got run over by a lady I call the Master Blaster. Do you remember that cartoon that was on from 1984 to like 1986 called Kidd Video? Well the evil genius on Kidd Video was Master Blaster. He was a big fat radio executive who tried to enslave the band to make him more money. He rode around on a flying motorized wheelchair.



Anyway this lady is the mail lady for the whole building. Now you would think that a mail lady would be nice and trim because she has to bring all this stuff all over the building all day long. And let me tell you its a HUGE building. This lady is as big as a house and she's always got a scowl on her face. She rides around on a forklift that has been modified and instead of forks and a lift it has a basket that she keeps her mail in. I have never seen her get out of the thing. She just rolls up to a door and knocks. She waits until someone answers the door and then hands them the mail. If no one answers she just drops it on the floor and motors on. Once I even saw her got through the line at the cafeteria with her modified forklift.

Today I was walking down the hall and she careened towards me at the last second, almost pinning me to the wall. So I needed some comfort food. What better comfort food is there than chicken and dumplings?

This is not your run of the mill crappy recipe for chicken and dumplings. These dumplings are delicious. They have a secret ingredient of Parmesan cheese. Also the chicken is a little different and the choice of vegetables is a little different as well. Read on for details.

Koko's Chicken and Dumplings

For the chicken:
cut 1 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast into half dollar sized pieces.

Dip the chicken pieces into a well beaten egg and then dredge in:

1/2 c flour
2 t sea salt
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t black pepper

Fry these in oil and set aside.

For the vegetables, saute the following vegetables in 1 T vegetable oil until soft:

1 leek, slice up
1 piece celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1 turnip, peeled and diced

Add a couple bay leaves. Next pour in a 1/4 cup of dry white wine to deglaze the pot. Dump in the rest of the flour that you used to dredge the chicken. Dump in 1 quart of chicken broth. Dump in the chicken pieces and add:

1 t rosemary
1 t ground sage

Bake in the oven, covered in a deep Dutch oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile make the dumplings.

For the dumplings combine the following in a mixer and stir up:

3 T butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 c flour
3 T parmesan cheese
2 1/2 t baking powder
2 t sugar
1 t sea salt
1/2 t black pepper

Form the dough into golf ball sized balls. When the 20 minutes is up from the chicken and vegies cooking in the oven take it out of the oven and bring it to a simmer on the stove top. Add the dumplings and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. when they are done, a toothpick should come out clean.