Homemade Chicken & Dumplins

The HF (that's right!  that handsome boyfriend has now become the handsome FIANCE!...more on that later) and I have been going without chicken for a while...and he hasn't been a happy camper.  While I try and keep us on a strict grocery budget of $200 a month, he has no problem with buying whatever he wants for food.  Needless to say, I keep up with all the grocery buying.

A guy that the HF works with passed on to him a flyer for whole organic chickens from an Amish farm for a pretty decent price so we ordered 10 of them (6 for us, 4 for some friends).  Yesterday I spent the day cutting up all of the chickens and dividing them up into bags for later meals and last night I made our first chicken dish in over a month!

Here's the recipe for the best chicken and dumplins you'll ever eat:

1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken stock

3 chicken legs, shredded

3 chicken thighs, shredded

Dumplins (recipe below for those)

1 can evaporated milk

lots of black pepper and some salt

Pour your chicken broth into your pot and bring it to a boil, drop in your cut up dumplins (about 1/3 of them) into the boiling water and wait til they set, then throw in a handful of chicken.  Repeat with the dumplins and chicken until it's all gone then pour in the can of evaporated milk, turn the heat down to simmer, and pop the lid on it.  Let simmer for an hour then they're ready to eat!

Dumplin recipe:

2 cups self rising flour

pinch of baking powder

pinch of baking soda

3 tbls olive oil

buttermilk

Mix together your dry ingredients then mix in enough buttermilk til the mixture is moist but not sticky.  I don't measure my buttermilk so use your best judgement.  This is a recipe that my step mom passed on to me and it is also her biscuit recipe!

No picture for this recipe because we ate them faster than the time I could grab my camera...maybe next time!