Easy Chicken and Dumplings

You have no idea how bad I wanted to title this post "Chicken and Dumplins".  I mean, I've never heard anyone below the Mason-Dixon line actually annunciate the "g" in dumplings.  And if they do they must be a relocated yankee.  It's kind of like how southerners use the working "fixin'" when they are talking about how they are about to do something.  Can I get an amen??  Anyone??

I gave in and added the "g" because I was afraid that when people searched for this recipe that it wouldn't show up otherwise.  Fine.  Just know I'll call them dumplins for the rest of the post....

Anyhow, when my hubby and I first got married I asked him what recipes he would like for me to try out and the first recipe he mentioned was chicken and dumplins.  It's now been almost ten months since our wedding day and I finally got around to making them.  This is definitely a cold weather dish and I just didn't feel right whipping a big pot of them up in August, you know?

There are a lot of great chicken and dumplin' recipes out there: some that only call for 4 ingredients, others that require 3+ hours in the kitchen so that you can make your own biscuit dough.   I'm sure I'll try the completely from scratch route at some point, but on this particular night I simply didn't have time.  I combined portions of several recipes and added a few twists of my own to come up with the recipe below.  I did take a few shortcuts, but I don't believe the flavor and quality of the dish suffered at all.

From start to finish it took me an hour and fifteen minutes.  Often I see prep+cooking time that is WAAAY shorter than what it takes me, but the time I mentioned includes pulling all of the utensils out, cooking the chicken, etc.

Coconut Oil Biscuits

I have a slight problem when it comes to biscuits.  More of an addiction I guess you could say.  There isn't really anything I love more than to start my morning off with a big, fluffy biscuit.  And it doesn't hurt if that biscuit is hugging an egg and a few slices of bacon.

I've tried several biscuit recipes over the years and have featured several of them here on the blog.  You've got sweet potato biscuits, buttermilk cat head biscuits and then the mile high biscuits.  I love each of those recipes, but when I opened up my pantry doors this past weekend another idea popped into my head.  I recently purchased my first jar of coconut oil (in love) and I got to thinking that surely to goodness you could replace the butter or shortening in a batch of biscuits with this stuff.  Fat is fat after all, right?  Sure butter gives biscuits a slightly different flavor than does shortening, but I didn't think coconut oil would make that big of a difference.  Surely the biscuits wouldn't come out rivaling the coconut flavor of Captain Morgan Parrot Bay would they?

Thick and fluffy.  Just the way I like them.

Nope.  They certainly did not.  What resulted was the softest, most tender biscuit ever.  Ever.

Just make sure that your coconut oil doesn't get too warm and go all liquid on you.  When I pulled mine out of a room temperature jar it had the texture of soft shortening.  It just barely held its shape.  I'm guessing if your oil was in a pure liquid state that you would have a very hard time cutting it into the flour mixture.  If your oil is too soft just stick it in the fridge for a bit to firm up.

Mile High Biscuits

Every Friday growing up my dad would take me by Stoney's, home of the best biscuit in our tiny little town, for a bit fluffy one all wrapped up in tin foil to keep it warm until I got to school.  I would always get mine plain with just a bit of butter.  Not too much though. (For what it's worth, my taste has definitely changed and I now get one packed with bacon and egg.)

Is it crazy that the most distinct thing I remember about ordering those biscuits at the end of each week was that "desserts" was misspelled on Stoney's menu posted at the drive thru?  It was spelled with only one "s".  [Face-palm] Ugh.

I found these biscuits on (you guessed it) Pinterest.  These are apparently the very famous biscuits from Ruth's Diner in Salt Lake City, Utah.  According to Pinterest these are "the best biscuits EVER".  Well if Pinterest says it then it must be true.

Look at those butter, flaky layers.

I can't put my finger on what exactly about the texture is different, but it is distinctly different from the buttermilk cathead biscuits I posted a while back.  These are a bit sweeter because of the sugar and tey are definitely chewier.  But maybe that's because I rolled the dough to 1 1/2 inches thick versus 1 inch as was suggested.  Hey, I like my biscuits big.

One thing to note is that my biscuits never turned golden when I baked them.  They stayed a very light cream color  Yours may, but just make sure you keep an eye of them in the oven and use another gauge of doneness other than just color.

Southern Buttermilk Cat Head Biscuits

Wait, WHAT?!  Cat head biscuits?  Yep, you read that right.  Cat head biscuits.  If you're from the south you've probably heard of these.  If you're not, then I'll bring you up to speed.

Cat head biscuits are named as such because the biscuits are as big as a cat's head.  Why a cat head as the size comparison?  Well that I'm not sure of.  But the point is that these biscuits are BIG.  Big and fluffy.  They don't taste any different, per se, but rather it's simply the size of them that warrants the name.

My grandmother has always made wonderful biscuits, but it was always a bit hard for me to learn how to replicate them because she never measured anything.  "Just add milk until it looks right", she would always say.  Sigh.  You know someone is a good cook when they never whip out a measuring spoon or cup.

But luckily for me (and you), I found a trusty recipe which I have shared below.  The only thing I would do different next time is that I would use lard in place of the shortening.  You can buy lard in the same section as Crisco and it makes the biscuits much fluffier and provides a better taste in my opinion.

Oh, and I would also have made 5 biscuits instead of 6.  These were large and fluffy, but I would do them even bigger.  And maybe add some bacon, an egg and a slice of cheese :)  I'll remake them with these edits sometime soon and post a comparison.

Buttermilk Cat Head Biscuits
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 C cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 Tbsp shortening, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 C buttermilk

Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and preheat to 425 degrees.  Grease 9 inch cake pan.

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl.  Cut butter and shortening into mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal.  Stir in buttermilk until combined.

Carefully form biscuits.  You should end up with six.  Make sure not to pat them too flat either so that they will fluff up.

Arrange 5 biscuits around perimeter of pan and place one in the middle.  The biscuits will be touching, but you want them this way so that they will cook up rather than out.

Look!  They love each other.

Bake until puffed and golden brown, approximately 20-25 minutes.  *I also brushed some melted butter on mine when they had about 5 minutes to go.*  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before removing.

Fluffy, buttery deliciousness

Biscuits will keep for 2 days in air tight container.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

One Saturday about a little over a year ago, my then-fiance and I stopped by the famed Highlands Bakery in Atlanta, GA for brunch.  I ordered their breakfast plate and opted for the sweet potato biscuit in place of their classic whole wheat one.  And my life was forever changed.

No, I'm only kidding.  Just a little.  Have you ever eaten one of those biscuits?  I absolutely love sweet potatoes and all things carbs (especially nice, fluffy biscuits), so it's not surprising to me that I took a quick liking to these.

I've been looking around the internet for some time trying to find a recipe that I thought might compare, and I settled on Martha Stewart's version.  This recipe is fairly straightforward, and the only time consuming aspect of it is the baking of a sweet potato.  I'm sure you could use canned sweet potato puree though if you were in a pinch.

Even though biscuits are typically a breakfast/brunch food, I made these the other night for dinner along with eggs (over easy for me, scrambled for the hubs) and turkey bacon.  I'm sure these would also go well as a dinner bread too.

*I whipped up some brown sugar cinnamon butter to go with these biscuits.  Just add some cinnamon and brown sugar to some softened butter and you're good to go.  If it gets too soft just stick it back in the fridge for a bit.

Sweet Potato Biscuits from Martha Stewart

• 1 3/4 C all purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar (I substituted with sugar in the raw)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tsbp melted butter
• 3/4 C sweet potato puree, chilled
• 1/3 C buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place baking rack on lower shelf.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. 

Dry ingredients mixture

With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. 

*Make sure you don't forget the melted butter too.  I added this in AFTER I had cut in the chilled butter and it worked well for me.  If you forget it the dough will be incredibly dry and impossible to knead.

I had to call a time-out and give you an "above" view of my

amazing new apron.  Not only is it incredibly stylish, but it also has a button

there on my right side for you to attach the dish towel.  Perfect for keeping your hands 

free in the kitchen!  One of my fave shower gifts :)

Now back to the recipe at hand....In small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

For the puree, I simply baked a sweet potato, chilled it in the fridge,

and then mixed it with a hand mixer.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface.  Knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. 

With floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

Butter/Grease an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.

I didn't have an 8-inch round cake pan, so I divided the biscuits up

among 2 pans.  In hindsight I would have gone

with the round cake pan because it would have allowed me to

place the biscuits closer together.  The closer together they are the softer

the edges of each biscuit will be.