Chicken and Dumplings

Friends rave every time I make this recipe. It's comfort food, and I especially enjoy making it on cold or rainy days. I often use a whole chicken cut into pieces and skinned. You can make the store-bought chicken stock taste more like homemade by adding some fresh herbs and parsley and simmering until it's reduced by half. ****add a small can of corn. I doubled it as it just did not seam to be enough for a family of 5 plus we like leftovers. **** To save time, I shredded the white meat only from store bought rotisserie chicken. I also used low fat low cream of celery soup instead as well. **** To up the flavor and the heartiness, I add three cloves of garlic, 2 chopped carrots, 2 diced celery stalks, one diced potato and add a bay leaf while it boils. Enjoy with a nice light red wine!**** I used 2 cloves of garlic and pre-made buttermilk biscuit dough ****make the dumplings to the box recommendations vs. the recipe.


Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
4 pounds chicken pieces, skinned
1 cup frozen green peas
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Dumplings:
2 cups baking mix (such as Bisquick)
2/3 cup fat-free milk

Remaining ingredient:
Chopped parsley (optional)

Heat a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in sherry and the next 4 ingredients (sherry through soup), and bring to boil. Add chicken pieces; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken pieces from cooking liquid. Place chicken in a bowl, and chill 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from bones, and cut meat into bite-size pieces. Discard the bones. Add chicken to pan; stir in peas.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to pan; stir well.

To prepare dumplings, combine baking mix and milk. Drop the dough into chicken mixture to form 16 dumplings. Bring to a simmer; cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the dumplings are done. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups chicken mixture and 2 dumplings)

CALORIES 373 (24% from fat); FAT 10.1g (sat 2.8g,mono 3.1g,poly 1.5g); IRON 2.9mg; CHOLESTEROL 99mg; CALCIUM 116mg; CARBOHYDRATE 31.7g; SODIUM 725mg; PROTEIN 35.9g; FIBER 2.4g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2001