Weeknight Chicken and Dumplings | Recipe Remake
A classic Yankee recipe updated for today’s kitchens.
Our streamlined chicken and dumplings recipe (above) was inspired by many Yankee variations over the years, including “Potted Chicken with Parsley-Bread Dumplings” from October 1942.
Photo Credit : Styled and Photographed by Liz NeilyPhoto Credit : Styled and Photographed by Liz Neily
In this new column, we’ll revisit favorite Yankee recipes from years past and update them for the way we cook now. So as we contemplated where to begin, the answer was easy: chicken and dumplings. This tried-and-true recipe is a consistent favorite among our readers, and with good reason. It is not, however, an easy weeknight dish. You simmer a whole chicken for an hour, then let the meat cool and take it off the bone. Meanwhile, you make the dumpling dough, roll it out, and cut it. It’s a wonderful recipe: cozy, economical, delicious. But it’s not the stuff of everyday cooking.
This updated version is. It starts with store-bought chicken stock (though you can always use homemade), a rotisserie chicken, and simple drop dumplings. We boost the flavor of the chicken stock by adding very aromatic vegetables such as leeks, carrots, celery, fennel, and garlic. And before you know it, dinner is ready. The flour from the dumplings thickens the broth, making it almost creamy. And if you want to make the dish more economical, you can always use the chicken carcass to cook up a whole new pot of stock.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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