Lizzie’s Chicken and Dumplings
My grandmother, Lizzie Paulk, was an amazing woman. She worked the fields in South Georgia with my grandfather Winnes, raised three children, and somehow still found time to put three home-cooked meals on the table every single day. She passed away when I was in junior high, but I have wonderful memories of her laughter and her love for her family. Mama had always complained she could never get her dumplings to come out as thin as her mom’s, but the first time she made them after Grandma died, she said it was as if Lizzie were guiding her. Maybe she finally decided it was okay for Mama to be able to make her dumplings! They’ve come out perfectly every time since.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 6
Ingredients
Dumplings
Preparation
Step 1
Put the hen, breast side down, in a very large (8-quart) stockpot and add water to within 2 inches of the top of the pot; this will vary according to the size of your pot, but the hen should float clear of the bottom of the pot and be covered completely. Add the salt and pepper. Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer. Cover the pot and cook for 2 hours, or until the chicken is tender and the drumstick joint twists easily. Allow the chicken and broth to cool slightly, and then remove the chicken to a colander.
Step 2
Strain the broth into a very large bowl. Cover the broth and place it in the refrigerator. When the fat solidifies on the top of the broth, remove and discard it. Remove the chicken from the bones and cut or shred the meat by hand into small pieces. Set aside 2 cups and refrigerate or freeze the rest for another use. (Leftover broth may also be frozen in individual containers to be used another time.)
Step 3
To make the dumplings, heat 2 quarts of the defatted chicken broth in a 3-quart saucepan. While it heats, put the flour in a medium bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water and stir the mixture into the flour to make a stiff dough. Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface and knead until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide it into 4 parts. Heavily flour a rolling pin. Roll one portion of the dough very thin. With a very sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 2 × 4-inch strips.
Step 4
When the broth reaches a rolling boil, add the strips of dough. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and roll out another portion of dough, cut it into strips, and drop them into the broth. Continue preparing each portion of the dough and adding the strips in this manner. Always raise the heat to bring the broth back to a rolling boil before dropping in more dough strips, and then reduce the heat to simmer before covering the pot again. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper to taste. Add the 2 cups of cooked chicken and cover the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes.
From Gwen
Step 5
My mom would drape the dough strips over her fingers as she transferred the pieces to the broth. It was fun for me, many years later, to allow my grandchildren to handle the dough the same way.
note
Step 6
Many cookbooks assume we all know the basics of cooking, and instructions for boiling a hen, like you’ll find in this recipe, are seldom included. When I first moved away from home and started asking my mom for recipes, I needed her help with everything from boiling corn on the cob to making chicken broth from scratch. If I don’t use all the broth from a hen in the recipe I’m making, or if I’m just cooking the chicken to use in a salad, I save the broth and freeze it for the future. Canned chicken broth is good, but homemade is always better! A hen is a mature chicken that produces eggs. A fryer is a younger, more tender chicken. Using a hen for chicken stock gives you a richer broth, because hens have more fat than fryers. Mama taught me that!
