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Well, I’m staying with another chicken dish because most everyone likes chicken, it’s incredibly versatile, and it’s easy to buy a roasted chicken at your local market to streamline the prep time.

I will also be trying to stay with dishes whose ingredients are still readily available at the markets, which so far, whole and roasted chicken is.

You can also use grilled chicken breasts or any other leftover cut as long as it is cooked.

If you have any chicken in the freezer, thaw it out and use it in this dish. A large Dutch oven, enameled cast iron pot works best for this dish ie. Le Creuset brand. If you don’t have one, you can make do with any large stock pot.

For the dumplings, my version combines both cornmeal and regular flour, which gives them a little more body and not as doughy. They are very quick, easy and foolproof to make. I like adding fresh thyme and some chives to them, but I, sometimes, add cracked black pepper and garlic as a different approach.

As I mentioned earlier, this is an opportunity to have some fun with them and add whatever your favorite herb and/or spice might be as they are a blank palate that will accept lots of different flavors. So off you go with this delicious one pot meal. BTW, if there are any leftovers, they heat up very well in the microwave which puffs air back in the dumplings as they become quite dense in the fridge.

Chicken & Thyme Dumplings

Ingredients

• 2 TBS Olive oil
• 1 cup Finely diced onions
• 1 TBS Minced garlic
• ½ tsp Kosher salt
• ½ tsp Ground black pepper
• 5 cups Chicken broth
• ¼ tsp Turmeric
• ½ tsp Dried thyme
• 3 cups Frozen peas and carrots, defrosted
• 6 cups Coarsely chopped, roasted boneless chicken
• ½ cup Heavy cream
• 7 TBS Cornstarch
• 7 TBS Water

Dumplings

• 1-1/2 cup Flour
• ½ cup Cornmeal
• 1 Mounded TBS Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1-1/2 cups Half and Half
• 2 TBS Chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 TBS Chopped chives

Directions

Place oil in large cassoulet dish and heat. Add onions, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic and turmeric and cook over low heat until onions are just translucent. Add chicken stock and chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and add cream.

Make the slurry by mixing the cornstarch and water together to form a runny paste. Using a whisk or spoon, stir in the slurry while simmering. Cook for 3-4 minutes then add vegetables.

Here again, if you want to use different types of veggies like broccoli florets or baby squash you can do so as I did with my version here in order to bring some color to a somewhat bland looking dish.

Bring to a simmer and using a soup spoon, drop individual scoops of the dumpling batter evenly on the top of the simmering broth. They will look pretty sad at first...mostly submerged and struggling to float....have faith...they will recover and blossom to fill the entire top of the pot.

Cover the pot and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the tops of the dumplings are firm and no longer doughy. Allow to sit 10-15 minutes before serving. Served with a simple green salad on the side, this is about as good as comfort food gets and probably most of you out there have never experienced this dish. Enjoy!

Reheating

You can simply reheat leftovers in the same pot that they were made in, covered in a 350 degree oven for 3-45 minutes. However, I recommend removing the dumplings from the top and microwaving them separately and heating the leftover chicken and vegetable on the stove top over an open burner. I always add a little chicken stock to the stew as the sauce thickens quite a bit when chilled overnight.

If you are adding some colorful vegetables like I did here, blanch them in lightly salted boiling water, place them on top of the stew and then top with the dumplings.