Chicken and Dumplings

This is one of my favorite meals that my friend Kristy makes. I tried it for the first time last week and I think I did good for my first time. She's a pro at it though, and hers is definitely better. 

INGREDIENTS:

• whole small/ medium chicken
• 8 chicken bouillon
• 2 cups bisquick
• 2/3 cup milk

Place chicken into a pot (make sure you take the giblets out). Cover with water- and add 4 bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil and cook the chicken for 30 minutes, then turn the chicken over in the pot and cook for another 30 minutes. Depending on the size of the chicken, this could either be done or can go another 10-15 minutes. Cut into the breast and make sure its no longer pink. You can by pass the whole "cooking your own chicken" thing by getting an already cooked chicken from the super market and taking all of the skin and meat off of the bones for this dish. 

Once the chicken is done boiling, remove from the pot and set aside to cool. Add more water in the pot if needed, it should be about 1/2 - 3/4 of the way full. Add in the other 4 chicken bouillon. Bring to a boil again. While you're waiting for the water to boil, combine the bisquick and milk together in a bowl. Drop spoonfuls of the dumpling dough into the boiling broth. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the cover to the pot and cook another 10 minutes. 

Remove the dumplings and place on a baking sheet, place in the oven at 300 for 15 minutes, until they harden up a bit. At this time you should remove all of the meat from the cooled chicken and add it back into the broth in the pot.

I served the chicken and dumplings over my cheddar chive mashed potatoes and with cranberry sauce on the side. 

There will more than likely be enough chicken and broth left over to make a soup the next day. I sautéed up some onion, carrots and celery in a pot- then added my leftover broth and chicken from the chicken and dumplings. Voila a super easy chicken soup. A great way to utilize leftovers and have dinner for 2 nights out of 1 night of work. Cheers!