Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation 2011 Campfire Recipes.

here is one version I posted some time back.

Chicken and dumplings

Cut up a chicken into it's component parts. Submerge in lightly salted water. Throw in celery tops, sliced onions and carrots. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for a couple of hours. You want the meat to literally fall off the bone.

I pull out the veggies at that time, and discard them. I add fresh celery, turnip, carrots, and more chicken broth if needed.
Cook the chicken and veggies another half hour or so, and then top with the dumplings.

I make these with two cups sifted AP flour, three teaspoons baking powder, half teaspoon salt, and a cup of milk. Some folks like to add in a bit of fine diced onion and some chopped parsley. You want a fairly soft dough, and you don't want to work the dough a lot.

Drop the dough on top of the still bubbling broth with a large spoon. This will give you fairly large dumplings.
Cover, and cook another 15 min or so. If you like, turn the dumplings over after about 10 min.

the pot is a cast iron 5 quart. I disjoint the bird, and debone the breast. I leave the legs, thigh, wings all bone in. The mark of when its all done, is when the meat just falls off the bones. I cook the carcass in another pot with more onion, celery and carrot. I want the extra stock, and the flavor needs to match the pot I am fixing the dish in.

The veggies I leave in large pieces. The carrots, turnips and celery can be in chunks, not a fine dice.
The dough is NOT biscuit dough. There is no fat added for the dumpling dough, as it would be if you were making biscuits.
I keep the broth topped off to about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the pan. This covers the meat, but leaves enough room for the dumplings to expand when they cook.

I always turn the dumplings over once, about 10 min into the time it takes to cook them.