When you think of Sunday dinners at your grandmother’s house, chicken and dumplings is probably one of the dishes that first that comes to mind. The dish is great to make for those special family get-togethers, but mixing the dumplings and rolling them out makes it’s a little too time consuming for regular weeknight meals.
However, there’s an easy fix if you’re craving chicken and dumplings but are pressed for time. Just use flour tortilla strips instead of rolled dumplings as an alternative to the old standby.
CHICKEN and TORTILLA DUMPLINGS
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 cups water
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon OR 10 chicken bouillon cubes
1 (10-ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
Salt and pepper to taste
10-11 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes for garnish
Place chicken breasts, water, celery, onion and carrots in a very large kettle or roaster and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for about 30 minutes or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and set aside.
Reserve broth in roaster. You should have about 9 cups of broth. Add chicken bouillon and taste to make sure the broth is rich and tasty. Add more bouillon if needed and more water if you don’t have 9 cups of broth.
When chicken is cool enough, cut into bite-size pieces and set aside.
Add cream of chicken soup and salt and pepper to taste to broth and bring to a boil.
Cut the tortillas into 2-by--inch strips. Add strips, one at a time, to briskly boiling broth mixture and stir constantly.
When all strips have been added, spoon in chicken, reduce heat to low and simmer 5 to 10 minutes, stirring well but gently, to prevent dumplings from sticking. Your kettle of chicken and dumplings will be very thick.
Sprinkle dried parsley flakes over top of chicken and dumplings.
Pour into a very large serving bowl and ladle into individual bowls and serve hot. Makes 6-8 servings.
Brotherton offers website readers one stellar recipe a week in the “My Leader Yummy” feature. Looking for a recipe you can’t find? Email me at kbrotherton42@gmail.com and I’ll see if I have it.
