Today's Main Dish Monday recipe comes from our dear friend, Kristen. We've been best friends with Kristen for many, many years now, and one of the things she is most famous for is her cooking! The girl can make the tastiest meals and the prettiest cakes you've ever seen! She even hunts for her own meat! What can't she do?! Anyway, when I was marrying Christopher, I had a bridal shower and all of the ladies brought me their favorite recipes so that I could keep my man happy once married. Kristen gave me the recipe for her simple and delicious chicken and dumplings. She knows what a picky eater he is, so she kept this one basic! I added a few extra spices while I was making it this time, but trust me, it's good as is!!
I can remember the first time I ever spent time in the kitchen with Kristen. We were in high school and decided we wanted to cook a meal for our boyfriends. Up until this point, I specialized in grilled cheese and tomato soup, spaghetti, and occasionally pancakes and scrambled eggs. Kristen, however, cooked fancy and delicious meals! She put me in charge of dessert, so I set out to follow her recipe for peanut butter pie. I got it all done and put it in the fridge so it could cool. That was about the time that Kristen discovered that I forgot to add in the powdered sugar! HAHAHA! Don't worry, it was still tasty! When it was time to sit down and eat, Kristen asked me to grab the wine opener so we could enjoy a glass of nonalcoholic wine (we were teenagers!). I happily obliged and brought her what I thought was the corkscrew. My parents never drank wine, so I don't think we even owned one! She died laughing when I handed her a GARLIC PRESS to open our "wine!" We still crack up at that story and Michelle and I love to tell it at our cooking classes! I've come a long way in the kitchen since those days, and am happy to report that I know the difference between a corkscrew and a garlic press, and I haven't forgotten the sugar in my peanut butter pie since that day! The three of us often say that we are so very grateful for our friendship and we thank the Lord for stories like those! We've been friends for about 13 years and even though we live in different states now, we still talk via text message every single day! It is a wonderful and special thing to have friends that teach you new things, make memories with you, and pray for you on a daily basis.
Alright - Back to the dumplins'!!
I started off by boiling the chicken breasts, but you could definitely bake them if you prefer.
Once boiled, go ahead and chop them up and set aside.
Next, mix the flour and Crisco with your hands until it gets crumbly. Add water until is a dough consistency. Roll out and cut into strips to form the dumplings.
Warm up your cream of chicken soup in a pan and then add your dumplings. Stir this up, then add your chicken chunks. Add salt and pepper to taste.
This is where you can add whatever spices you'd like. I added some parsley and garlic powder (who doesn't love garlic?!), and threw in some cooked carrots as well.
