Yesterday evening, amidst getting my car from the mechanic, cleaning the ceiling fans, reworking the cords on my top-down Roman shades and watching Biggest Loser, I also boiled the chicken for Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings, a recipe from my new Texas cooking cookbook.
Yes, I broke down and bought chicken again.
I've got to hand it to the poultry people - their product is abundant and cheap. I guess I could have started with a whole chicken, but using these pieces was easier to handle, and I don't know that a whole chicken would have been that much cheaper.
The recipe says to start with a little chicken broth in the stock pot. I had bought two cartons from Safeway on sale last Sunday, and filled out the remaining two cups with water. I figured the chicken itself would add enough flavor to make up for it.
Then I just put all the pieces in the pot, set the burner on medium low, and let it go for a little more than an hour, just to make sure the chicken was extra tender.
This is what it looked like after simmering all that time. I pulled the chicken pieces out of the stock and let them sit for a little while so they could get cool enough to shred.
I peeled the skin, fat and bones away from the meat, and put the broth in a container to save until I finish the recipe tonight. Having all that delicious chicken stock makes me want to use it for chicken noodle soup.
One of the first things Scott said to me this morning, when I was still groggy and in bed, was that we were having homemade chicken and dumplings tonight. I think he's looking forward to it. :-) It's dark and damp here today, so it will be a good recipe for a chilly spring evening.
I was surprised too to see that you had bought chicken again! :)
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