Chicken Stew and Dumplings Sims Style

Photo: Cheryl M

Ingredients

10 chicken thighs

1/2 cup flour- do not discard the leftover

1 teaspoon Kosher salt and pepper

Olive oil

2 onions- chopped

5 cups Potatoes- I used tiny yukon gold nugget and kept them whole- probably- use as mu

3 carrots- chopped

3 stalks of celery- chopped

2 cups of button mushrooms- fresh and kept whole

1 cup of white wine

3 cups of chicken stock

Dumplings

2 cups of flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Kosher salt

1 1/2 cups half and half

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

Prepare the chicken:

In a large pot (that can go in the oven) - drizzle olive oil and heat over medium. For the chicken, you can choose to remove the skins or not. I chose to remove them and really like the flavour and the consistency. Leaving the skins on will also give the stew a lot of flavour - it's just not as light and healthy (not that this is a really light dish). In a shallow bowl, add the flour and the kosher and pepper. Place the chicken, individually, in the flour and cover both sides. Add the chicken directly to the oil and heat. I did 5 pieces at at time. Brown both sides of the chicken for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the pot, place on a plate and do the remaining.

Once the chicken is done, add the onions to the pot and saute for a minute. Then add the white wine and let it bring up all the flavourful bits off of the bottom.

Then add the remaining vegetables and broth, give it a good stir. Add a bit of kosher salt and pepper and 1-2 bay leaves if you have them. Place the chicken back in the pot, stir it all together. Place the lid on - or aluminum foil, and put it in the oven for about 1.5 hours. Just let it sit - and do something that you enjoy doing - reading a book, watching an early Canuck game, have a nap...

You can tell when the stew is just about ready when the potatoes are tender. At this time, you may want to thicken it up a bit. What I did, was use the remaining flour from the chicken, add a bit of the stew liquid and whisked it all together to make a bit of a paste. Stirred it in, and watched it thicken. Then shred the chicken - using 2 forks - and add it back to the stew.

Place the pot on the stove now, and heat it over medium-low heat. I am sure that I could have done the dumplings in the oven - but I thought I better try to follow a recipe.

For the dumplings:

In a bowl add all of the dry ingredients. Slowly add in the cream - about 1/2 a cup at a time, and stir it until all of the dry ingredients are absorbed by the cream.

Place spoonfuls of the dumpling mixture on to the top of the stew. Cover the pot slightly and let them simmer for 30 minutes.