By Beth's Request: Bo's Chicken & Herbed Dumplings

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(The above is not a picture of my dumplings but I didn't have one of my own handy--so I "borrowed" that picture...)

Okay, since Beth asked if I would post my recipe, I will try and re-create it here. Since I cook without written recipes, I'm going to try and estimate some of the amounts of things, okay? (But I'll try to err on the side of caution, so that if you like the flavor of a particular spice you can simply increase it if you like.) This is the recipe that's been handed down in chicken & dumplingdom in my family since probably the Civil War. (Or the Revolutionary War, who knows?) (Yes I know they didn't have Bisquick in the 1700's but plain flour works just as well...)

(Is "dumplingdom" a real word?)

(Oh yes, and I herb my dumplings, even though they're made from Bisquick.)

Take 1 pkg of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 4 or 5 good sized ones) and put them in a dutch oven pot, add water till it just barely covers them, and start them to boil.

When they are cooked (no pink in the middle), lower the boil to a simmer. Take the breasts out of the water. Break them up into large pieces, and then add them back into the water.

Add to the pot (and I've been known to be really liberal with the spices):

4 chicken boullion cubes

1 Tbl sage (I've been known to add more)

1 - 2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 - 2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbl onion powder

2 Tbl parsley

1 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

While you're simmering that for awhile, make up the herbed dumplings. You make the basic dumplings like the recipe on the box of Bisquick. But then I go further.

Mix the following in a bowl:

1 1/3 cup Bisquick

1 Tbl parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp sage

1 tsp paprika

(Toss everything with a fork to mix everything up good.)

Then, add milk until a soft dough forms. And I mean a soft dough---there's been times I added too little milk because I thought I wanted a "firm" dumpling, but they turned out like rubber..eeek! So make it a soft dough.

Okay, then you put your pot of soup on a simmer. Not a boil. And then you've got to "thicken" the soup. So take a ladle and ladle out two coffee cups half to 3/4 full of the soup (no chicken in there). Let them cool awhile (you can put them in the frig if you're in a hurry). Then use flour to thicken both of the cups' liquid--and thicken them pretty gooey and thick. And then after you thicken the liquid in the two coffee cups, raise the temperature of the pot of soup till it's a boil again, and then slowly pour those two cups of thickened soup back into the pot to "thicken" the whole pot of soup, stirring constantly till your whole pot of soup is thick. (Not "glue" thick, but a little bit less than "gravy" thick.)

Again, put your boil back down to a low simmer, and then you take your dumpling dough and drop it by spoonfuls into the pot. I always start in a ring formation and then add them to the center of the ring until the whole entire pot of soup is covered in dumplings.

Cook everything on a LOW simmer for 10 minutes UNCOVERED--not a boil (so as not to burn stuff on the bottom of the pot). Then you put the lid on the pot and LOW simmer them for 10 more minutes COVERED. It may take more than 10 minutes in this last stage. The way you tell if the dumplings are done is if they look cooked on their tops (poke one). Don't be afraid to pull a dumpling out and cut it in half to check if it's totally cooked. (Then plop it back in there to finish cooking.)

That's it! I hope I've written it correctly. The secret is the sage. Most people don't add sage to their chicken & dumplings but it totally makes the chicken flavor come out. And most people don't "herb" their dumplings, but it really makes the dumplings taste better. (God, I hope I wrote this recipe right....)

I've had people tell me these chicken & dumplings were so good "they'd make you stand up and slap your grandma"....

Important for refrigeration of leftovers: If you refrigerate the leftovers, separate the dumplings from the soup into a separate bowl. If you don't, the dumplings will swell up like balloons from soaking up the soup. When you reheat everything, reheat the soup on the stove first, separately, and when it's hot add the dumplings in and heat a little more till the dumplings are hot.

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