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Sony Studios 10202 Washington Blvd ($40 admit, unlimited 4oz beer pours)



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Savuer! Its all about Los Angeles and the cover story is Pizzeria Mozza!


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Chicken and Dumplings and Divine Intervention

I've never had chicken and dumplings.  I mean I ate it once two weeks ago but it was from a can from Progresso and was an unfortunate choice.  The dumplings were super gross just like mushy dough.  Well there was an episode of "Cooking for Real" on a few days ago where she made chicken and dumplings and it didn't look awful.  There is also a recipe for chicken and dumplings in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home which looked amazing!  And wouldn't you know it, when looking on the cooking light website for tasty, low calorie, low cost dinners there is YET AGAIN another chicken and dumplings recipe.  All right fine!  The culinary gods have spoken...I will make chicken and dumplings!  So I went with the well reviewed low calorie version of this dish. Might as well because if I make the unhealthy, probably amazing Thomas Keller version version I don't know that I would like or ever eat the healthy one!  Anyway here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • Cooking spray
  • 8  ounces  skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 3/4  cup  (1/4-inch) diagonally cut celery
  • 1/2  cup  (1/4-inch) diagonally cut carrot
  • 1/2  cup  chopped onion
  • 1/8  teaspoon  dried thyme
  • 3  parsley sprigs
  • 1  bay leaf
  • 3  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
  • 2.25  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1/2 cup)
  • 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4  teaspoon  baking powder
  • 1/4  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  cup  1% low-fat milk

Preparation

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add celery and next 5 ingredients (through bay leaf) to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Return chicken to pan; cook 1 minute. Add broth to pan; bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, chopped parsley, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk, stirring just until moist. Spoon by heaping teaspoonfuls into broth mixture; cover and simmer 10 minutes or until dumplings are done. Discard parsley sprigs and bay leaf.

Amazing!!! SUPER good!  The dumplings cook IN the broth so you don't need to dip bread in the broth because its already in there.  It was really cool when I dropped the dough in the broth because of the baking power the dough actually rises as it cooks!  And the middle of these little dough balls, once fully cooked, aren't all soggy in the middle just really good!  I also doubled the amount of chicken in the recipe...I mean I do have a MAN for a husband and I'm pretty sure he would frown upon a soup based dinner with only 4 oz of chicken.

Heath also doesn't like soup for dinner.  I don't know what it is but he just doesn't so I made something extra for him just in case soup wasn't gonna cut.  Bruschetta!  I love bruschetta and this stuff I made was sooo good and I didn't use a whole lot of olive oil so in my opinion that means it wasn't that bad for you!

 

Ingredients

  • 4 Roma Tomatoes
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp jarred minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • A good squirt of bottled lemon juice
  • Pinch of kosher salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper
  • Roasted Garlic Bread (La Brea Bakery)
Preparation
Preheat over to 375 F
Chop and seed tomatoes.  Mix all ingredients minus the bread in a bowl and set aside.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Slice the bread into 4 half inch thick slices and place on the foil.  Toast the bread in the oven for 5 minutes or until the undersides has a nice golden brown toast to it.  Spread the tomato mixture over the toast. Eat.  Enjoy!



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