utenzi

I wanted to make a meal large enough to supply a dinner plus some small meals later on. As a result, Kim and I made chicken and dumplings for dinner (and lunch the next 2 days) this weekend. I was inspired by two things. A Food Network show with Tyler Florence ( Tyler's Ultimate ) in which he made the dish, and also that whole chickens were on sale at Food Lion for 59 cents a pound. We ended up using this recipe for the Chicken and Dumplings though we poached the chicken instead of roasting it, as you can see in the photo below. The main reason for poaching was that the Food Network show did it that way---even though the recipe on the website said to roast it.  That's a 5 pound bird (less than $3!) so we let the bird poach in simmering water for 90 minutes in a dutch oven, uncovered. That's me lifting it out of the water in the picture below. The chicken's meat was still tender but the bird was sufficiently cooked that the spine broke in two while I was lifting it out ...