Chicken and Dumplings Topped with Mini Biscuits

These are not your normal "Southern-style" chicken and dumplings, but they are every bit as good. Friday night Andy and I were watching "Drive-ins, Diners and Dives" and I saw this guy, not Guy, fix this dish. I have no idea where the restaurant was, but I thought I'd try my hand at making a dish similar to what I saw. The biscuit dough does double duty. First roll out creates the mini-dumplings (formed with a shot glass) and the second creates even smaller biscuits (formed with a 2 liter cold drink top) to sprinkle on top of the soup. Yes, it's worth the extra effort.


It was cold, damp and nasty outside this weekend and this dish was perfect. I'm not going to mention any names, but SOMEONE, not myself, put such a dent in the pot we had one small bowl left. So was it good? I think so!

THIS IS WHAT I USED:
3 lbs. bone-in chicken thighs
2 carrots, finely chopped
1/2 large Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
About 2 cups self rising flour
1/2 stick butter, softened
Milk
Salt, pepper and poultry seasoning

 Put chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add some salt for seasoning. Skim off the foamy fat that rises to the top of the pot and discard.Cook until chicken is done and almost falling off the bone.  Remove the chicken from the pot and set to the side to cool so you can handle it.

While the chicken is cooling, cut up the celery, carrots and onions.

 Add vegetables to the pot. Remove meat and skin from bones while these cook.

 In a small bowl add flour and cut in butter. Add milk in batches and stir until it forms a ball.
Once it's mixed up, stop and return the chicken to the pot.

 Season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Taste broth to determine if more needs to be added.

Roll dough out on floured surface. Cut dumplings with a shotglass.

 Finish cutting biscuits and wait until broth comes to a rolling boil.(Save scraps around these biscuits)

 Drop dumplings into rolling broth one at a time.

 Dumplings will start to puff up. Carefully stir periodically. Turn heat down on medium to low and let simmer.

 Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the "scraps." Using a cold drink top, cut out as many mini-biscuits as you can with the leftover dough.

Place the mini-biscuits on a Pam-sprayed baking sheet and bake until light golden brown, about 25 minutes.

It's ready to ladle up and top with the "cracker-like" mini-biscuits.