Recipe Rescue: Government Shut Down Dumpling’s

When money is tight it's always a struggle to figure out how to feed your family food you can feel good about feeding them. This simple recipe will help put food on the table in lean times, when families are hurting the most. And you might just like it enough to eat it when times are good.

Easy, Quick and Perfect when Penny Pinching

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 whole chicken, flour, salt and pepper

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

In a large stock pot place your cleaned whole chicken (season the chicken with salt and pepper) and add water, the water should come up over the chicken by about 2 inches. Cook the chicken on medium low (covered) for at least an hour longer if possible, you want it so tender that it just falls off the bone. When the chicken is done, drain it over your pot and set aside to cool, also remove about a cup of the broth and set that aside to cool.

Making the dumplings, put 2 cups of flour on the counter, add a tsp of salt, mix and create a little whole in the center, now add half of the broth you removed from the stock pot, mix together with your flour and then add the other half, your dough should be slightly firm, not wet so add more broth if needed once you have a ball of dough set aside for ten minutes then roll out on a floured surface and cut into 2x2" squares, let sit to dry a bit, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, pull the cooked chicken from the bones and add to the stock pot with the rest of the chicken broth (it used to be water but after cooking the chicken in it it is more like a stock or broth) bring to a bowl and drop in the dumpling's. It's time for dinner when the dumpling's start to float.

Back in the depression era they would make this dish a lot and when times were really lean the men would eat the chicken and the women and children would rely on the dumpling's for their meal. In fact, Chicken and Dumplings were said to have originated in the Great Depression.