Home style Chicken and Dumplings

We have a great love for chicken and dumplings in our home. It's a regular item on our menu all year long. I've made them the same way for years and it never disappoints us. Here is my recipe for home made chicken and dumplings! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the dumplings

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon sea salt

2 Tablespoon of sugar

1/4 cup butter (stick butter, salted)

3/4 cup milk

For the broth

1 large container of chicken broth 

5 chicken breasts

1/2 stick of butter

1/2cup of milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Fill a large pot with water and boil your chicken

While its boiling start your dumplings. First, mix all of your dry Ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in your butter with a pastry cutter until its well blended. Pour in the milk and mix until your dough comes together. It will be a bit sticky, but that is okay! 

Once your chicken is cooked, pull it out of  the water and shred it. Then add it back in. The water should be pretty low. Add your chicken broth to the water and bring it back to a simmer. Once it starts simmering, roll out your dumplings and slice them into flat strips (about 2inches long) now your ready to toss in all your dumplings one at a time. I usually double this recipe, so it completely fills the pan with dumplings and I have to add them in slowly to keep it from over flowing. (My husband likes a lot of dumplings in his). 

After you have added the dumplings, let them simmer on med/low heat until they are done(they will be somewhat firm and will have shrunk a lot). At this point add 1 stick of butter and half a cup of milk. Stir and let it simmer a little longer. Add salt and pepper to taste. They are ready to serve! Pretty simple but oh so good! 

Garlic roasted sweet potato

I like to attempt to eat healthy about 70% of the time.  I love cooking and I love food, so not all of my meals are healthy. However, on my healthy eating days we love to make sweet potatoes. I have many different ways I like to cook them, but this is our favorite! You can add cauliflower or carrots to it also and it tastes great! I also like adding sweet peppers if I'm the only one in my family eating it.  The recipe is below, enjoy!

Garlic Roasted Sweet Potato(with broccoli): Feeds 5

Ingredients:
Pre-heat oven to 375
4 to 5 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (maybe less or more depending on how large they are)
1 bag of frozen broccoli, or 3 cups of fresh broccoli
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
Garlic infused grapeseed oil(regular grapeseed works, as well as olive oil if you don't have it)
Sea salt
Black pepper

Instructions:
Chop up garlic and set to the side.
Peel and chop potatoes into chunks and place in a large bowl. Add frozen or fresh broccoli. Drizzle oil over the broccoli and potato mixture. Add oregano and mix together with hands until everything is coated. 

Spread out mixture onto a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with fresh garlic, sea salt and black pepper. Place in the oven and bake for 20minutes, or until potatoes are soft enough to eat(watch it closely so that they don't burn to the pan). At about 10 minutes I flip my potatoes around to help avoid burning on the bottom.

note: I like to use the organic Garlic infused grapeseed oil sold by wildtree. I'm not sure if anyone else makes it, but their brand tastes wonderful with this dish!  

http://instagram.com/p/xfjmdtvClo/