Spicy Chicken & Dumplings {super easy}

Kickin' Chicken & Dumplings

I want to share this family favorite recipe with a little twist. These inexpensive dumplings are easy to make and are the perfect home cooked meal on a cold night!

Here's what you need:
1 1/2 cups flour
3 T butter (softened)
5 t water
1 egg
1 T pepper
1 t salt
4-6 cans chicken broth (depends on how "soupy" you like your dumplings.  I would rather have 4, but Brad would rather have 6, so we settled on 5.)
4 chicken breast
spicy seasoning: here is the one I used and is one of my personal favs

After trimming the fat off the chicken, cover it in seasoning then set aside.
Mix together the flour, butter, water, egg, salt and pepper to make the dough for your dumplings.  This takes a little elbow grease, but will pay off in the end,
Separate the dough in half and roll each out pretty thin (I'm thinking like 1/8" thick).
Leave the dough rolled out to "dry" for about twenty minutes. 
During this time grill your chicken and cut into bite size pieces.
Go ahead and put the broth on the stove on high heat.
Cut your dough into 1 inch vertical strips with a butter knife.  Then cross-cut every 2 inches, so you have 1X2 strips.  When broth is boiling drop (carefully) dumplings into broth.
Leave on high heat about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.  Taste test a dumpling to see if it's ready.  When the dumplings are cooked and the chicken and reduce heat to low.  Give the dumplings about five or ten minutes to soak up some broth and then ENJOY!!! 

  

Quick tips:  To pick up the pace you can get a rotisserie chicken instead of grilling your own!  This is enough for Brad and I to have dinner and have for lunch the next day- so I guess I could say it serves 4 people.  It's very easy to double the recipe and freeze half of batch for a quick dinner another night.  Don't forget to put leftovers in the fridge!

Cost:  I had everything I needed except for the chicken and eggs.  I got the 4 fresh chicken breasts in the manager's special section at Kroger for $2.69.  A 1/2 eggs cost me $1.19.
I have a huge stock of chicken broth on hand from a Kroger sale where I paid 13 cents a can.  What a steal and it has a looonng shelf life.

FYI: I pulled these simple white dishes out of my aunt's donate pile last weekend and I love them- thanks Aunt Barbara! I love white dishes- they are classic and timeless! The cute brass tray was a steal at $4 from a junk shop in China Spring, TX where I was visiting my sister! It is currently living on my coffee table covered in bridal magazines (:

If I forgot anything or you have any questions just ask in a comment!