Just for fun…a picture of me & Megan (probably at 7 mo?)

My first experience with chicken ‘n dumplins was at Cracker Barrel in 2001.  I was maybe 8/10 weeks pregnant with Megan & feeling pretty yucky.  Tim & Angela came down to Phoenix to visit Ryan & I with my beautiful baby niece, Madison, and we met them at Cracker Barrel.  Angela thought the chicken n’ dumplings would make me feel better.  It didn’t.  For years, I cringed at the thought of chicken and dumplings. 

Then, a few weeks ago, we had our weekly after church dining out excursion and landed at New Braunfels Smokehouse, where the only thing on the menu that sounded good was the chicken and dumplings. I ordered it, and I LOVED it.

So, a few days ago, when it rained all day long, I thought some hot soup would be nice and, since I didn’t have the ingredients for stew, I thought I’d try chicken and dumplings.  It actually turned out really, really good!  And it was so easy, so I thought I’d share.  (When I can’t think of anything profound to say, I just talk about what we’re eating over here.  lol)

So, I took a package of frozen chicken thighs (yes, they were organic–go me!) and boiled them from frozen for a long time in 1/2 water, 1/2 chicken broth (my biggest downfall as a wife and mother is remembering to get the frozen meat out of the freezer in time to make dinner–ok, maybe not my biggest downfall, but one of them).  When the chicken was clearly falling off the bone, I strained the broth into the crockpot and pulled all the meat off the bones & put it in the crockpot.  I had two carrots and two ears of leftover corn–that went in the pot, too, (cut up, of course) along with a bit of celery.  (All the recipes I found called for onions, but I didn’t have any–not even any Lipton onion soup!) I let that cook all afternoon…smelled so yummy! 

About an hour before dinner time, I made dumplings from the Betty Crocker cookbook that I have–just 1 1/2 c flour, 3/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 T shortening, and 3/4 c milk.  Plopped that on top and voila!  It was very, very yummy.  Even the kids liked it.  Hurray!  Another crockpot meal for fall!

And here’s my baby Megan.  Wasn’t she precious?!