Baked Chicken and Dumplins

I saw this on Pinterest the other day.

Baked Chicken and Dumplins.

No, not dumplings.

You have to say it the Southern way.

Dumplins.

I LOVE Dumplins.

When I go to visit Mark's family in Mississippi, his mom often makes a big pan of chicken and dumplins.

I attempted it once.

It was NOT the same.

So that is why I found this recipe intriguing.

It is LIKE chicken and dumplins but not.

So this morning I popped out of bed and boiled the chicken.

Then I stuck it and the broth in the fridge.

After school, I rushed home and I threw it all together and stuck it in the oven before running kids around.

And about an hour and a half later, we sat down to eat.

I should mention that after only 20-30 minutes, the kids were saying, "What is that smell? It smells so good..."

Anyway, an hour and a half later, we sat down to eat.

And we loved it.

Well, five out of six.

One of out six was her usual "It's okay..."

She is picky that way.

Five out of six works for me.

We WILL be having this again.

Oh, and my hubby is not a big dumplin guy but he LOVED this.  He thought it tasted a lot like a pot pie minus the veggies.

We both agreed it was comfort food at its finest.

This recipe makes a large pan.  I had to scoop just a little bit for my lunch tomorrow or the teenager would have finished it off.  I thought we would have a lot left over.

No such luck.

Ingredients:
4-6 large chicken breasts, boneless. I had frozen tenderloins on hand so I used that.

1 1/2 sticks butter, divided.  I used to use "light" but due to one of my kiddo's sensitivities, I am using the real stuff these days.  YUM.

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (If I had to do it over again, I would have doubled the milk and flour)

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups chicken broth (The original recipe called for 3.  I didn't use the third one and I still thought it was amazing.

1 can (or in my case, box) cream of chicken soup (The original recipe called for cream of celery. I didn't have any of that.

1/2 tsp savory (I didn't have that so I just sprinkled rosemary and thyme)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Place the chicken breasts, 4 Tbsp of butter, salt, and pepper in a large pot.  Cover with water.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Then simmer for about 30-45 minutes until tender.

Remove chicken from broth.  Let it cool a bit then shred it (I just used two forks).

If you do this ahead of time (I have to or I run out of time), put your shredded chicken in the fridge.  Also store that chicken broth.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees when ready to cook.

Melt the remaining stick of butter in a large dish. I used a 9 x 13.

Spread the shredded chicken all over the bottom of the dish.

Mix together the flour and the milk. (As I mentioned before, the one change I will make next time is to double the flour and the milk.)

Pour over the chicken and spread out as much is possible.

Mix together the broth (I just used the broth that remained after boiling the chicken), sour cream, the cream of chicken soup, and savory (or thyme and rosemary for me..).  Spread over the top of the chicken/flour mixture.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.  Then let it cool for about 15 minutes.  At one point mine was getting a bit brown on top, so I stuck some aluminum foil over the top for the last 10 minutes or so...

Oh, you are supposed to pour one more cup of chicken broth over the top after it cooks but I didn't.

And know that it is never extra firm.  It will seem a bit runny.

But also know it is good stuff.

We had it with green beans and homemade bread.

It was SOOOO yummy.

I enjoyed every bite!

Happy cooking!

Reba