I've been doing a lot of experimenting lately.
No, I haven't gotten into hard drugs or dubstep, I've just been making up dinner recipes, trying to be thrifty, healthy, and quick all at once.
Tonight I made an easy version of chicken and dumplings, and Trista gave me the great idea to share it. (Check out Trista's blog and the rest of the Bright Maidens, too!) So, here's how I did it:
1. I put just a touch of oil in the bottom of my big spaghetti pot and let it heat up while I salt, pepper, and garlic powdered two chicken breasts.
2. I cooked the chicken over medium/medium high heat, making sure each side was golden and delicious looking.
3. I let the chicken sit on my cutting board while I wiped out any excess oil (but left the chicken bits stuck to the pot).
4. I put a beer glass full of water in the pot (this is called deglazing maybe?) as well as a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. At this point, I wish I would have added some other veggies like squash, because I'm obsessed with squash right now. But, alas, I stuck to the classic green bean, carrot, pea, corn combo.
5. As the veggies were heating up, I added a can of "healthy" cream of chicken soup and a can of "healthy" cream of mushroom soup (simply because I only had one cream of chicken can). And I stirred.
6. I opened a can of pilsbury biscuits (the pop always freaks me out) and pulled off little pieces of dough and dropped them into the pot. I did five biscuits worth of dime-ish sized pieces, which meant that we had 3 biscuits left to enjoy with our meal...which is great because I love biscuits.
7. As everything was simmering away, I cut up the chicken into bite sized chunks and threw that in, too.
8. When it was all in the pot, I seasoned with salt, pepper, a bay leaf, garlic powder, some dried parsley, and just a touch of celery salt. I put on a lid and let it simmer for um, I really have no idea. I think maybe half an hour or so? It should thicken up nicely and the dumplings should become dumplings consistency.
It wasn't my grandma's made from scratch chicken and dumplings, but it was pretty good, and easy enough for a weeknight. J said it was make again worthy, and then he killed a scary camel cricket for me, so I will probably be making it again relatively soon.
Let me know if you have any ideas!
poopy.
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