I have been seriously lacking spoons over the past week. I’m back up to working full days (almost) at work and it is taking a lot out of me. The fatigue is absolutely brutal and I’m requiring naps most days when I get home. So I haven’t been doing a lot of interesting cooking, nor have I found much in the way of energy to update this blog. But this being a four day weekend, I did manage a few things in the kitchen.
One thing that I have been meaning to try out is figuring out a way to “low-residue” my chicken and dumpling recipe. Chicken and dumplings is serious comfort food for me, especially in winter. But as it involves onions, celery (stringy bits mean it isn’t low residue) and milk in the dumplings, I wasn’t sure how I would adapt this, but I managed it with success on Friday.
As I was only feeding myself, this recipe is for one person. I took two skinless, bone-in pieces of chicken (I prefer thighs and drumsticks for this recipe) and put them in a pot. Rather than using onions, I used onion powder (I still resent having to do that), and added a bit of salt, ground pepper, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf to the pot.
I poured in enough water just to cover the chicken. I put the lid on and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, I chopped a carrot. Usually, I also add chopped celery, but not being allowed that, I used a few dashes of celery salt. I put the carrot and the celery salt in the pot, put the lid back on, and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
Then I made the dumplings. For dumplings for one, I stirred just short of ½ cup of flour, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of baking powder, 1/8 tsp of baking soda in a bowl. I cut in 1 tbsp of butter until the mixture resembled crumbs.
Usually I use milk, but thought I would try rice milk to see if that would work instead, which thankfully it did. I used about 1/6 of a cup (ish) and mixed it with a fork until the dough was a big sticky mess.
I added the dumplings to the pot by very carefully dropping them on top of the chicken. It’s really important not to cook this style of dumpling directly in the liquid because it just turns the liquid to (tasty) goo.
It’s also important to make sure that there is still enough water in the pot (about halfway up the chicken), because the dumplings absorb a lot of the moisture and more than once I have ended up with a rather large clean-up job afterwards.
Once I added the dumplings. I put the lid back on and let it simmer for 12 minutes. It’s really important not to lift the lid and peak because it will cause the dumplings to collapse. At 12 minutes, I lifted the lid and checked that the dumplings were done with a toothpick (like cake, it should come out clean).
Considering the changes I had to make, this came out pretty tasty. I still begrudge not being able to use proper onions (I’m less fussed about celery), but at least this is one more thing I can do with chicken!
One thing that I have been meaning to try out is figuring out a way to “low-residue” my chicken and dumpling recipe. Chicken and dumplings is serious comfort food for me, especially in winter. But as it involves onions, celery (stringy bits mean it isn’t low residue) and milk in the dumplings, I wasn’t sure how I would adapt this, but I managed it with success on Friday.
As I was only feeding myself, this recipe is for one person. I took two skinless, bone-in pieces of chicken (I prefer thighs and drumsticks for this recipe) and put them in a pot. Rather than using onions, I used onion powder (I still resent having to do that), and added a bit of salt, ground pepper, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf to the pot.
Meanwhile, I chopped a carrot. Usually, I also add chopped celery, but not being allowed that, I used a few dashes of celery salt. I put the carrot and the celery salt in the pot, put the lid back on, and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
Then I made the dumplings. For dumplings for one, I stirred just short of ½ cup of flour, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of baking powder, 1/8 tsp of baking soda in a bowl. I cut in 1 tbsp of butter until the mixture resembled crumbs.
Usually I use milk, but thought I would try rice milk to see if that would work instead, which thankfully it did. I used about 1/6 of a cup (ish) and mixed it with a fork until the dough was a big sticky mess.
It’s also important to make sure that there is still enough water in the pot (about halfway up the chicken), because the dumplings absorb a lot of the moisture and more than once I have ended up with a rather large clean-up job afterwards.
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