Chicken and Dumplin's

Mmmm. Talk about comfort food; this is it. This was my first time to make Chicken and dumplin's, and oh my word. So yummy. And to be honest, I feel bad typing out "dumplings." It should be "dumplin's." Sorry, that's just the way it is. Haha. I feel the Texas drawl comin' out when I say that. Ok, moving on.

I think every person that has ever made this dish has made it differently. There are so many variations. Some people like it more soupy, some like it without a cream component, with just chicken broth. Some like their dumplin's mushy, and some like them more firm. Some like this dish with carrots, celery, and onions mixed in, and some like just chicken and dumplin's. So...yeah. I wasn't sure how I was going to make mine. So I did what I always do...I made it up as I went. Haha. It turned out WAY better than I expected, and it was pretty darn easy. I made mine with chicken, dumplin's, carrots, and onion powder in a "sauce" of chicken broth and cream. You could easily leave out the cream (the dumplin's give it a good consistency), and you could easily add more veggies. But for me...this is a winner. Yummmmmm. This made enough for probably 2-3 adults, so scale accordingly.

Ingredients:
-2 chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper
-2 tablespoons butter
-1 teaspoon onion powder
-3 cups chicken broth
-2-4 cups water (it will depend on how quickly the liquid is absorbed/evaporates)
-2 or 3 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped roughly
-2 cups baking mix
-2/3 cup milk
-1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
In a small mixing bowl, mix together the baking mix and milk

until just moistened-it will be a very soft dough.

Set aside. (This is the dumplin' dough)

In a medium sized stock pot, melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the uncooked chicken and brown slightly on both sides.

It doesn't need to be cooked all the way through. Add the onion powder to the pot with the chicken broth and increase heat to high.

Let the broth begin to boil, cooking the chicken the remainder of the way. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to shred momentarily.

Add the chopped carrots to the boiling broth.

While they begin to cook, start dropping small chunks of the dumplin' dough into the boiling broth. I literally just pinched off about a teaspoon-ful of dough

and dropped it in.

You don't need to make them round. Rustic is better. Hehe. Make sure the entire thing is covered in liquid.

As the liquid is absorbed by the dumplin's, add more water to keep things from burning, and to have enough liquid in which to cook the dumplin's. I added it a cup at a time and stirred the whole she-bang to make sure the dumplin's got covered. When the dumplin's are all added, reduce the heat to medium and stir to incorporate everything well.

Shred the chicken with two forks and add back to the pot.

Reduce the heat to medium low and stir to incorporate.

Add in the cream and stir to combine.

Cover the pot and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.

This will let everything get hot and yummy, and for the dumplin's to finish cooking so you're not eating...dough. Eww. When the ten minutes is up, taste for seasoning, adjust accordingly, and serve while piping hot.

So.amazingly.yummy.

Enjoy!