Crock pot chicken & dumplings, and "sopapillas"

I know it's hot and sticky outside, and the last thing you're thinking about for dinner is a hot bowl of soup. But, I had to use up some chicken, and the thought of dumplings made my mouth water. Tuck this recipe away for the first really cool day of fall. Or, crank down your AC and make it now. The crock pot cooking method does keep your kitchen cooler, though.

A little disclaimer: the lighting in my kitchen always makes my pictures of soup look funky. It looked more appetizing than this, I promise.

This recipe fits my 2 qt crockpot, and makes 2-4 servings.

Here's what you do:

Preheat a pan on medium high heat.
Add 1/4 cup each of chopped celery and carrots to the crock pot.

Take a baggie and put about 1/2 c. of gluten free flour in there. It doesn't really matter what kind, but starches will thicken the soup more. Sprinkle in some thyme, pepper, rosemary, and garlic powder to your liking. Close the bag and mix it up.

Then, add in three raw chicken strips or whatever kind of chicken you need to use up. Close the bag and coat the chicken. Brown the chicken on both sides, and add it to the crock pot. Dump in any remaining flour from the baggie that didn't stick to the chicken.

Put a little chicken broth on the hot pan to loosen up the browned bits of goodness, and add that to the crock pot. Fill the crock pot with enough chicken broth to cover everything, plus a little more. Stir it all up well.

Let that cook covered on low heat for about 4 hours, or until the chicken and veggies are done. My chicken was fall-apart tender and juicy.

Once that's done, it's time to make the dumplings:

2 T. each brown rice flour and millet flour
1/4 c. potato starch
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 T. shortening, warmed
1/4 c. rice milk or milk
1/4 t. xanthan gum

Mix the dry ingredients together, then smoosh in the shortening. Make a soft dough with the milk. Either drop the dough by spoonfuls into the crock pot, or flatten it out and cut it into strips like I did. Put the crock pot on high and cook until the dumplings are done. They were perfect and slightly chewy. Oh, I was supposed to add peas towards the end but I forgot.

Now, I had a little bit of dumpling dough left over that I couldn't use or I'd crowd the pot too much. Rather than toss it, I sprinkled them liberally with cinnamon & sugar, then pan-fried them. I sprayed a pan well with cooking spray, then put it up to medium-high heat. I put the dumplings on the pan, sprayed with some more cooking spray, and covered the pan for about 5 minutes. They came out crispy and gooey at the same time. I drizzled honey over them. They reminded me of sopapillas, only not puffy.



There you have it. It was a longg day and I'm thinking a glass of wine sounds really nice.