chicken 'n dumplings a la jennifer

so, it's been a couple of weeks since i've moved into my apartment and started classes, and i thought tonight was finally the time to inaugurate the beginning of my apartment cooking antics. the past few weeks haven't been too eventful - think tons of spaghetti and jarred tomato sauce, interestingly-cobbled together dinners, and the occasional dinner out with friends. a lot has happened in the past two weeks, so I didn't mind the quick lunches and dinners.

however, tonight is a calm friday night. i had no classes, i spent time catching up on sleep (when your average school week slumber totals to 4 hours a night, sleep is really important) and finally discovering the beauty of half-gallon jugs of milk at the nearby 7-11. my roommate is currently fighting off the cold-monster, so that means i have free range to experiment with recipes. plus, i needed something in my repertoire that hit all the food groups because after the past few weeks of relying on stomach-filling, carby foods, i was feeling bloaty and gross. i need me my vegetables!

what else would i do than to settle for comfort food after a long week of kicking butt (or getting my butt kicked?) in my graphic design classes?

with low rations and my friendly neighborhood bisquick box handy, i whipped this up in half an hour and it tasted like childhood memories. when i was little, my dad used to make delicious chicken and dumplings and mysteriously that came to an abrupt end when i discovered that mom wasn't fond of the dish (the funny thing is, i heard that's the first dish he made for her when they were dating!).

i had an interesting time trying to create a name for this recipe.

chicken and dumplings a la struggling art major? (depressing)
chicken n dumplin's a la apartment lazy sloth? (also depressing...and it makes me look bad)
chicken and dumplings a la bisquick (a frequent accomplice)

anyway, here's what i cobbled together and it tastes pretty darn close to the original dish i ate as a kid. perhaps i remember it tasting even better in memory, but i'll give my dad the prize for the chicken and dumplings. but for now, this is definitely still very delicious!

ingredients!!! (for one hungry jennifer or two people)

1 tablespoon flour
1.5 tablespoon butter (salted or unsalted is up to you - just be aware of the salt you season with!)
1 cup of milk, with more to adjust consistency accordingly
1 cup of chicken stock
1 stalk of celery
1/4 zucchini
1/4 medium white onion
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
2 cloves of garlic, minced OR 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic powder
salt
black pepper
paprika
1/4 cup bisquick mix
1/6 cup milk

what to do!!!

1. dice the chicken into small pieces, season with paprika and a touch of salt. set aside. chop up your veggies however you like. i went for the scoop-with-spoon-and-get-a-bit-of-everything so i aimed for a smaller dice.
2. melt your butter on medium-low heat in a small saucepan. and cook the onion and celery until tender, then scoop out, reserving the butter in the pan, and then put them into a medium sized pot.
3. in the remaining butter, sprinkle in the flour and raise the heat to medium, stirring until the mixture thickens and forms a roux. when the mixture thickens and starts to brown a little, turn off the heat and set aside.
4. in the pot with the veggies, pour over the chicken stock and turn up the heat to medium until it boils. once it boils, add your diced chicken and cook for about 6 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink on the outside. raise the heat so the soup comes to a boil.
5. in a bowl, combine the bisquick with the milk until it forms a sticky dough. to save time and another spoon to wash, mix with a large soup spoon. scoop the dough out a spoonful at a time and use a wet finger to slide it into the soup. the dough yielded 2 beautiful little baby dumplings, but feel free to make them smaller...or one big dumpling. that's cool too. let it boil for 10 minutes.
6. in the meantime, pour the milk into the roux pan and over low heat, mix until the roux dissolves into the milk mixture. add the garlic, then salt and pepper the milk to taste. the white sauce will start to thicken a so it is the consistency of cream of mushroom soup, and when it does, turn off the heat. it will continue to thicken as it sits in the warm pan.
7. after the ten minutes pass, stare in utter amazement as you see how much your dumpling babies have grown to absolute dumpling giants, and add the zucchini to the dumpling pot and cover. it's okay to arrange the zucchini around the dumpling because it'll steam in the pot. cover the pot with a lid and let it boil for another 10 minutes.
8. when the ten minutes is up, spoon a dumpling into a bowl with a slotted spoon. arrange the vegetables and chicken around it, then spoon the white sauce over it. add additional pepper to taste, and enjoy!

(side note: alrighty, so you probably wondered why i didn't direct you to just cook the chicken and dumplings in the white cream sauce...but don't worry, i got an explanation. when cooking chicken, you need to have a high cooking temperature to fully kill salmonella and cook the chicken properly and if you try to boil milk for a long period of time, it will curdle and taste weird and will definitely ruin all types of chicken 'n dumpling happiness you had in your mind. trust me, i've tried this. so cook it separately, and if you know a cure-all for this, let me know!)

lately
i've gone through formal recruitment and i've accept a bid to the alpha omicron pi fraternity
i've learned in design tech class that using the brightness/contrast adjustment in photoshop is a huge no-no
i've fallen in love with the color red.
i'm obsessed with this recipe for mochi bites and i really want to try this
i'm on the prowl for emerald green heels (so let me know if you find some at a reasonable price!)