Okay--some of you may balk at this one, but here I go......We had two whole chickens for dinner on Saturday night. Considering there are 6 of us at home, there were very little left overs, just bits and pieces that no one wants to claim. Since my children shy away from chicken salad sandwiches, I needed to come up with something else. So yesterday I steamed both of the chickens and used the drippings and all of the chunks of meat I could pull off of the bone to make Chicken & Dumplings Budget Stytle.
To my newly made broth, I added miscellanious vegetables that I had, you know from the fridge, that little bit of corn/greenbeans/carrots/peas left over that usually are thrown away? Any leftover veggie will do....or throw in your favorite veggie. Then I added salt, pepper, oregeno, minced garlic (oh everything tastes better with garlic!), and onion powder to taste. I boiled this for about an hour and let it cool and put it in the fridge to use for dinner tonight. (BTW, if you stick around long enough to read more posts, you will find that I often do things like this on the weekends to have great homemade meals on weeknights without slaving over the stove for hours! It was just steaming away while I boiled my potatoes for the German Potato Salad, I was in the kitchen anyway!)
Dumpling Recipe: (Remember this is enough for a family of 6 with a heaping load of leftovers)
5 tablespoons of shortening
2 tablespoons of butter
4 cups of flour
5 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
2 teaspoons of onion powder
1 teaspoon of basil
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
Mix the above ingredients until it crumbles. (I use my wondeful kitchenaid mixer for this)
1.5 cups of milk
Slowly add your milk until it becomes doughy. Again using the mixer.
I'm am so not fancy about this. I just pull about a golf ball size portion off of the dough and dump it into my boiling stew. It will sink, but don't worry...it will pop up shortly. Then I just continue until I have covered my entire pot in dumplings. I let this boil for about 5 minutes, cover and cook for about 10-15 minutes longer.
I would love to give you the cost of this meal...but it was all left overs, spices, crisco, flour and butter....so I'm guessing less than FIVE bucks for a delicious winter meal AND left overs galore!!
Tasting it right now: You would love it!!!
