Paul Chiasson wrote:
Sibyl, the recipe was positively delicious, though I subbed carrots for celery, and added some gr. pepper and a couple dashes of white pepper. The dumplings were very tasty, especially with the chives and parsley. You should send the recipe to the list.

Fricasee Chicken and Dumplings
Printer version of this recipe

1 broiler-fryer, cut up
2 cups water
2 chicken boullion cubes
1 med. onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, diced
2 bay leaves
1 t. seasoned salt
1/2 t. seasoned pepper
2 T. flour
dumpling batter

Simmer chicken covered with boullion, water, celery, bay leaf & ssnd salt and pepper for 45 min. or until chicken is tender. Thicken liquid with flour blended with a little cold water (may need more flour than the 2 T for thickening). Drop dumpling batter by tablespoonfuls onto chicken pieces. Cover and steam 10 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean. Serves 4.

Dumpling Batter

1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sifted cake flour (or 1 c less 2T sifted all-purpose flour = 7/8 c sftd a-p flour)
1/2 t. salt
1 T. shortening, margarine, or butter
3 T. milk
1 egg
2 T. chopped parsley
1 T. finely cut chives
(I usually increase the parsley and chives--those amounts work fine for dried, but not for fresh)

Combine flour, baking powder, salt. Cut in shortening. Add parsley and chives. With fork, beat egg with milk. Stir into first mixture to blend.

Only serves 2 who really like them--I usually double the dumpling recipe when cooking for more than one, but they don't make great leftovers, so I wouldn't double it feeding one--I'd make new dumplings bringing the leftover gravy, maybe stretched with water or canned broth, back to a simmer. Also, the chicken and gravy can be stretched to more than four, depending on how you cut up the chicken.

Make sure nobody eats a bay leaf--can be dangerous--best removed when dishing out.

This is a lower fat (and cheaper at the store) version of the classic fricaseed chicken--the original was made with an old fat hen, and is much higher in fat, and yellower--also the hen is tougher and takes longer cooking, and more flavorful, and all the fat makes the dish much yellower--the boullion cubes are to compensate for the shorter cooking and less flavor in the young fryer, and if the beige color isn't appetizing to you, you might want to add a drop or two of yellow food coloring when thickening the gravy.