Magical Snow Day Chicken and Dumplings

Hello, everyone!  Now this is a story all about how my frown got flip-turned upside-down.  I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I made chicken and dumplings that rocked the new year!

Let me warn you in advance that I editorialize my recipes; however, the editorialization is only going to help you.  It's cooking know-how.  You should probably pay attention to it since I have made this lots of times and made the mistakes that warranted the advice.  But you might already know the info if you're an experienced cook, so make your own choices.

Here are your ingredients (by the way, my recipe makes a veggie-heavy, thick, somewhat spicy stew; please alter amounts to suit your style of chicken and dumplings):

• Approx 2 cups cubed raw chicken (old, almost freezer-burned chicken works since the soup's so flavorful, so just cut off any dried-out pieces and use the rest)
• Two veggie bullion cubes
• Approx 8 cups water depending on your pot size and desired consistency
• Salt n Pepa
• Spices:  ground mustard, thyme, sage, cayenne pepper, oregano, garlic powder
• Olive Oyl
• 3/4 of a large bag of baby carrots (about four cups chopped, maybe?)
• An entire thing of celery, chopped
• A huge sweet onion (equivalent to about three smalls), sliced how you like (I like mine in big slivers!)
• Bisquick and milk, OR see dumpling recipe far below

Cut up your chicken into bite-sized pieces and throw it into a preheated huge soup pot with a little olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste, one good shake of ground mustard, four shakes of thyme, about two teaspoons of sage, two moderate shakes of cayenne, a teaspoonish of oregano, and maybe five good sweeps of garlic powder.  The chicken will probably taste over-spiced, but you want that -- you're really seasoning for the chicken and the broth as well.

[NOTE: I'm sorry I don't have real measurements; it would actually mess me up to measure things.  It's more likely the spices would end up really wrong.  ALSO NOTE: both the mustard and the cayenne add heat -- ground mustard creates a dull, whole-mouth heat, and cayenne is what gives the burn on the tip of the tongue.  They work well together, but if you don't want this to be spicy, say no to cayenne and do one light shake of mustard.]

Cook the chicken until it's done.  Heat up four cups of water with the bullion cubes (I do two cups and a cube at a time) and add to the chicken.  Keep it simmering and covered while you do the vegetables.  All your veggies should be chopped into manageable bites.  Begin cooking your carrots first.  Let me repeat that -- BEGIN COOKING YOUR CARROTS FIRST unless you want crunchy carrots and soft onions and celery.  Cook your carrots on medium-high heat with olive oil and some salt, just enough to flavor the carrots.  Add in three good shakes of thyme and half a teaspoonish of oregano.  Cook until the carrots are translucent around the edges but still opaque in the center.  Turn them off.

Add in your onions and celery, then salt them.  Let them sit until some of the juices come out of the vegetables.  This allows you to use less olive oil since moisture is being provided by the vegetables themselves (The salt is what does this, not the heat.  Common misconception.).  When you've got juices built up, add a little olive oil and turn the heat on high.  Add another three shakes of thyme, four swipes of garlic powder, another half-teaspoon of oregano, two good shakes of ground mustard and a good bit of pepper (one shake of mustard and less pepper if you're a weakling).  Cook until the vegetables are mostly translucent, but no more.

Dump all your vegetables into the pot of simmering chickeny goodness.  Add another two or so cups of water until you have the desired chunkiness (DO NOT put in so much water that you don't have room for dumplings later!  Leave about three inches of space from the top of the pot!) and keep on medium-low heat/a low boil while you mix up the dumplings, or at least fifteen minutes.  Don't skimp on the time; you're melding the flavors and creating a unique, full-bodied broth right now.

For drop dumplings:  make according to Bisquick box directions (double batch if you want), or make according to these directions I found on the internet.

• Four cups flour
• Four teaspoons baking powder (I know, right?!  I suggest you try three.)
• One teaspoon salt (You can definitely bump this down to half a teaspoon.)
• Four tablespoons softened butter (YES it needs to be soft, but not melted--try microwaving it for 30 seconds at half power, then stirring it up)
• One cup milk or more

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Add in the softened butter and cut it into the mix with a knife or fork or fancy pastry-cutting device (PLEASE get one of these if you ever want to make good doughs and crusts from scratch) until the butter is the size of small peas.  It DOES NOT have to look uniform.  Lightly mix in the milk, starting with a cup and adding more if necessary.  It should be a tacky consistency when you're done, with little to no excess liquid.  Only stir as much as you need to; if you overstir, it will yield tough dumplings.

Make sure your soup is lightly simmering, then drop in the dumplings a spoonful at a time.  Don't stress about them dropping on each other, but try to drop them in kind of different places.  It's okay if you have double-decker dumplings.  Cover and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, checking to make sure it doesn't get too hot and boily.  You'll probably want to turn it down a few minutes into it.  Check them at ten minutes--do they still look mushy?  Feel free to poke a fork in there and see if they're cooked through.  If not, try a few more minutes.  Mine take right about fifteen.

Done.  EEEEEEEAAAAATTTTTT.  I'm going to make myself another bowl right now.