Chicken & Dumplings
Jane Lumpkin Clotiaux (originally from a St. Charles Catholic Church of Nederland cookbook)
Yield: 8-12 servings
2 heaping tsp Crisco
4-5 cups of flour
1 large or 2 small chickens, boiled and deboned
Reserved chicken stock
2 tsp salt
Put 4-5 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl, add 2 teaspoons salt. Make a cavity in bowl leaving a little flour in bottom of bowl. Put the Crisco in cavity. Measure 1 cup of boiling broth. Pour small amount over Crisco, stirring constantly until the balance of the 1 cup of broth is used. Continue to stir until stiff.
Turn mixture on floured board, kneading dough as much as possible with as little flour as possible. When it holds firm, shape into 3 balls and let cool for 15 minutes. Roll each ball until thin, then cut into strips. Stretch strips and drop into boiling broth.
Cook about 15 minutes, add black pepper and deboned chicken.
Yield: 8-12 servings
One of my regrets ... that I didn’t get Grandma Imogene Clotiaux’s exact ingredients. She only used handfuls and pinches and it was hard to figure out. I don’t believe she used the Crisco in hers, but only the flour, salt and some of the chicken stock for moisture. She always rolled them very thin. That’s the reason why today I like to use the flour tortillas as they are so similar to hers. I have decided it is the chicken stock that makes them better as they always used a hen, rather than a fryer, as the hen added so much more flavor to the stock used to cook the dumplings in. (Dec 1996)
Mom found this recipe in a cookbook put out by St. Charles Catholic Church in Nederland. It is very similar to Grandma Clotiaux’s and Grandma Kay’s recipes, so we decided to include it. —Cheri Clotiaux Stringer (Dec 1996)
2 heaping tsp Crisco
4-5 cups of flour
1 large or 2 small chickens, boiled and deboned
Reserved chicken stock
2 tsp salt
Put 4-5 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl, add 2 teaspoons salt. Make a cavity in bowl leaving a little flour in bottom of bowl. Put the Crisco in cavity. Measure 1 cup of boiling broth. Pour small amount over Crisco, stirring constantly until the balance of the 1 cup of broth is used. Continue to stir until stiff.
Turn mixture on floured board, kneading dough as much as possible with as little flour as possible. When it holds firm, shape into 3 balls and let cool for 15 minutes. Roll each ball until thin, then cut into strips. Stretch strips and drop into boiling broth.
Cook about 15 minutes, add black pepper and deboned chicken.
NOTE: While reading Threadgill’s Cookbook, I learned that they use 6 Tbsp of the fat removed from the top of the chicken stock to make a light roux and add it to the stock with the raw dumplings.