Dark Days: Chicken and Dumplings

This year I'm participating in the Dark Days challenge, which, in short, challenges people to eat Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical (SOLE) food at least once a week throughout the Winter.  I'm participating in this challenge to help me evaluate how economical eating SOLE is as well as to raise my own awareness of the availability of SOLE food. As a graduate student I often consider myself too impoverished to actually eat ethically, but I've never actually evaluated this.  And I will admit, that living in California means that I really do have an easy time of eating SOLE.



My first meal was chicken and dumplings, which I shared with my roommates.  I was curious about how much sputtering the chicken thighs did when I was searing them, it burned me so!  In fact, this made me resent my chicken thighs a little, but in the end their deliciousness won me over.  I got local, organic leeks, celery, carrots, onions, and herbs from my local co-op. The chicken came from there also, and was definitely organic, but potentially just outside the local range.  I used stock I had previously made and canned, and my flour is local.  The milk was leftover from before I started the challenge so... I'm just going to say waste not on that one.



Not only is this meal delicious, but it's easy because you can use your crock pot.  The recipe I based it off of uses the oven, but I was going to be out all afternoon so threw all the ingredients in the crock pot on low.  I also took some liberties with the herbs, but that's what easy meals are for.



I can't actually think of an Australian analogue for chicken and dumplings. I guess chicken stew, which I would happily eat with bread or savory scones (biscuits), although biscuits aren't exactly popular in Australia. I would, of course, slather my bread with butter and use it to soak up the remaining juice at the bottom of my chicken stew.  Dumplings like this absorb the juices and leave you with both a thicker and slightly less juicy end product, which requires less sopping.



Of course, there was the creepy, circular floating fat on top of our bowls.  None of us was going to not eat the meal because of it, but after the leftovers were refrigerated I scraped the cooled fat off before reheating my next few meals.  In the future, I might take the skin off the chicken thighs before searing them.  Or afterwards (and upon second reading of the original recipe, this is what is suggested), since it is nice to have that reserved chicken fat to cook the vegetables in and add to the dumplings.  Either way, I'm going to go for a less fatty end product in the future.

Chicken and Dumplings, adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Stew
5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken legs
1 tbs olive oil
2 leeks, white and light greens only, sliced into half-moons
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
6 tbs all purpose flour
1/4 cup dry sherry
3 cups chicken broth (or more to your desired consistency)
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
1 tbs fresh rosemary, minched
3-4 leaves sage (I left them whole and pulled them out at the end with the bay leaves)
2 bay leaves

Dumplings
2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp table salt
1 cup whole milk
3 tbs reserved chicken fat (or butter, unsalted)

Heat a tablespoon or less of oil in a large dutch oven or skillet, and turn it to medium-high until the oil starts to smoke.  Throw in as many chicken legs as needed to cover the bottom of the dutch oven or skillet in a single layer and allow to sear and brown on each side, about 10 minutes total.  Do this in multiple batches if you have to (as I did).  Remove chicken and put it on a plate, and reserve the remaining chicken fat in the skillet/dutch oven (I poured mine into an old jar, the perfect receptacle for nuclear-hot fat).

Return your pot to the stove and lower the temperature to medium.  Add flour to make a roux, and allow to turn golden brown. Then add sherry to deglaze the pan, and let the mixture simmer and thicken (you may have to lower the stove temperature a bit).

While the roux/sherry is thickening, add your chopped vegetables and whole chicken thighs to the crock pot.  (I just threw them right in there without pulling off the skin, but I advise you to rip that skin right off.)  Add the chicken stock to your sherry mixture, and mix until it thickens a little.  Pour the juice over the chicken and vegetables in the crock pot.  Add your herbs of choice to the crock pot, put the lid on, and stick that baby on low for 4-6 hours.

30-ish minutes before you plan to eat, pull the chicken out of the crock pot and shred it. At this point you can either return it to the crock pot to keep warm, or reserve it to add back in after the dumplings are cooked.

At this time you should also make the dumplings. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt, and whisk. Add the milk and reserved chicken fat, and mix until a dough forms. Drop golf-ball sized (about a tablespoon) pats of dough into the crock pot liquid, make sure all are submerged, and turn the crock pot to high.  Put the lid on the crock pot and let the dumplings cook for at least 30 minutes. They should double in size and, if you want to check one, look cooked all the way through, without any raw dough left in the center.

Consume, enjoy.

(Upon second reading, this recipe seems surprisingly complex. It's not, really, but for some reason it just took a lot of words to convey it in all its delicious glory.)