Made in America: pollo in umido con gli gnocchi americani (chicken and dumplings)
This is what chicken and dumplings looks like when it is cooked but not yet arranged on a serving dish.
This version of chicken and dumplings is a dish that derives from very early times in the American colonial period. I learned it from my mother and she from hers. I remember my mother telling me that my grandmother had herbs at her kitchen door that went into this and other dishes and lilacs that perfumed the kitchen and were a place to dry the kitchen towels. That was an image so firmly in my mind that when I looked for a home I looked for herbs and a lilac by the kitchen door.
I don’t have a kitchen door now, but I grow the herbs my grandmother, whom I never knew, grew in Maine and some she could never have grown there. I can see the lilacs from the kitchen door, but they are too tall in this warm country for drying towels.
When she was a little girl, this was eg’s favorite dish and when she was asked on her birthday what she wanted to eat, it was chicken and dumplings. She feels differently now. I might convince her to love it again if I had a pot with a glass lid so she could see the dumplings plump up… what do you think?
Through the years that I have tasted foods from other American ethnic groups, many if not most of them included a version of chicken and dumplings. They often had a different name, but this is what they were. I liked them all. That is my tragedy…. I like almost all of the homey dishes that are made in kitchens next to the family kitchen garden.
If you look at these recipes you’ll see that the typical farm or small town home could provide most of the ingredients, even in winter. Except for the baking powder and flour, everything else might grow right outside the door. That’s really homemade! It’s also a stretchable meal. If you only have 3 pounds of chicken and someone wants to bring a friend or two over for supper, this works. Cut the chicken pieces in half or even smaller. You can just add more vegetables in the same proportions, more salt, of course, and lots more dumplings. Split the stew into two pots so the dumplings will have room to expand. You might even make two versions of them, one plain, one with cheese or herbs, or one with and one without eggs. Both the dumpling recipes are straight out of a 1960 edition of Betty Crocker Cookbook. Remember her?
This dish takes about an hour to make. It might take a lifetime to forget.
La ricetta in italiano segue la salta.
Chicken and dumplings
NB all metric measurements are in the Italian recipe version
Serves 6 to 8
Chicken in pieces — enough to feed your family. I skin mine.
1 large onion in chunks
1 or 2 carrots in chunks, depending on size
2 legs of celery in chunks
optional a splash of Sherry or Marsala
1 quart of water
salt—about 1 teaspoon per 1 pound or .5 kilo of meat and vegetables, start with 1.5 teaspoons
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried tarragon or a different herb if you like
1 pound of potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
In a large pot, like a Dutch oven, with a good lid, heat some oil, or like me you can fry a bit of the fat removed from the chicken to render some fat. Brown the chicken pieces in the fat you are using. When the pieces are all browned on both sides, toss in the wine if you are using it, then add the onion, carrot and celery chunks. Scatter the herbs over all, then pour in the water. Add about 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste for salt and correct.
Add the potato chunks, cover again and simmer 10 minutes. While the potatoes are parboiling, start making the dumpling batter:
And this is how it looks when you have just scraped the dough onto the stew. All that sparkle in the middle is the quickly boiling gravy bubbling up.
Dumplings 1
1-1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons oil
¾ cup milk
optional 3 heaped tablespoons of grated dry cheese like grana, Parmigiano or any well-aged hard cheese OR 2 teaspoons of dried herbs.
Put the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir together. Put the liquid ingredients in a measuring cup and stir. Add the wet to the dry and stir with a fork until it makes a lumpy batter. Uncover the chicken stew. Using a big spoon, scoop up some batter and scrape it off onto the chunks of vegetables and meat—not into the liquid. Use all the batter. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, cover the whole thing and cook 10 more minutes without peeking. DO NOT PEEK! When you remove the cover it’s there.
Remove the meat, vegetables and dumplings to a serving bowl or platter and check the gravy for salt. You can thicken the gravy quickly if you like, but work fast so your dumplings will be light and fluffy when they get to the table. Just the cooking of the dumplings in it will thicken it a bit.
Grind some fresh pepper over the dish and serve really hot. I like to eat it in a soup bowl because I don’t thicken the gravy and that allows the dumpling to get lots of savory sauce.
Dumplings 2
1 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons minced parsley
Make them exactly as you made the previous dumplings. I like these even more, but I didn’t make them, because I made half a recipe and I didn’t want to waste half an egg.
So how was it? I have just finished eating chicken and dumplings for breakfast, because early morning is when I usually work on food. It gives me the chance to clean up and wash the floor if I’ve been messy. While I wouldn’t recommend this for breakfast, it was excellent.
I had not made dumplings in decades, so I wasn’t sure the first effort would be publishable, but they are so simple to make that they came out perfectly. The only rule is do not open the lid of the pot for that last 10 minutes so they can rise and become dry and fluffy inside their moist skins. I even liked the carrots with their hint of chicken and herbs.
Chicken and dumplings could easily be made ahead a few days without the dumplings, and then when you want them make the dumplings and cook them on the reheated stew. That would make it a really hearty winter or autumn dish that could be ready 30 minutes after you and the family walk in from work, sports, errands. I don’t know for sure, but I think you might be able to reheat dumplings in the microwave. Someone please try it and tell me?
What NOT to do: Do not make this from skinless chicken breasts. You will never get a broth worth basing a whole meal on from them. Do not leave out any of the three first vegetables, because they are there as much to develop the broth as to eat. You don’t have to eat them, but use them. Don’t be afraid to change to herbs you prefer. There are some strong ones I probably wouldn’t like much, but if your family does, use them.
Questi sono gnocchi tipo americano. Li fanno le mamme americane come piatto unico con una stufata di solito di carne o pollo, ma anche con una stufata vegeteriana.
E’ un piatto più apprezzato nel autunno o inverno. A noi ha un carattere che fa caldo, ma anche è fatto delle verdure del inverno più rigido che quello italiano. Le patate, cipolla e carote, il sedano sono le verdure che conservano bene in fondo e una volta facevano quasi tutto di che cosa c’era d’inverno.
Anche se è fatto con manzo o agnello, il pollo è la carne più comune ed è la carne ho cucinato io. Quando è stata una bambina, quest’era il piatto preferito della figliola. L’ho cucinato innumerevole volte per lei. Lo cucinerò ancora ogni volta lei mi chiede.
Pollo in umido coi gnocchi americani
6-8 persone
Pollo a pezzi, quanto basta per la tua famiglia—il mio faccio senza pelle
Una cipolla grande a pezzi grandi
1 o 2 caroti, depende la taglia, a pezzi grandi
2 gambe di sedano, a pezzi grandi
un pò di Marsala
1 litro acqua
sale qb
2 cucchiaini timo
2 cucchiaini drogoncello o un altro profumo preferito
500 g patate, pellate e tagliate a pezzi grandi
In una casseruola grande con una coperchio stretto, riscalda un pò d’olio con un pò del grasso che hai tagliato del pollo. Arrosolare il pollo a tutti lati, e poi aggiungi il vino. Aggiungi la cipolla, la carota e il sedano. Aggiungi I profumi sopra, poi l’acqua. Aggiungi il sale circa 1.5 cucchiaini. Porti a bollizione, e poi coptilo, riduci la fiamma a sobbollire and lascia cucinare fino a è cotto il pollo. Con un pollo giovane, ci vuole circa 30 minuti. Assagi e coreggi il sale.
Aggiungi le patate e ricoprilo per 10 minuti. Mentre cuociono le patate, fai la pasta dei gnocchi.
Gnocchi 1
200 g farina 00
2 cuchiaini rasi lievita in polvere
¾ cucchiaino sale
2 cuchiai olio di semi
165 ml latte
se vuoi, anche 3 cucchiai colmi di grana gratugiatta o 2 cucchiaini erbe profumate secchi
Mette gli ingredienti secchi in una ciottola e mescolargli. Mette gli ingredienti fluidi in un fiasco di misura e mescolargli.. Aggiungi gli ingredienti del fiasco sugli ingredienti nella ciottola e mescolargli con una forchetta solamente fino a sono inumidati. NON mescolargli troppo! Ci rimangono chicchi. Va bene così, ti giuro. Scopri la stufata e usando due cucchiai, prendi qualche pasta e togli e fai cadere sulle verdure e la carne, non nella’acqua. Usi tutto la pasta. Cucini scoperta per 10 minuti, e poi coprila e cucini un’altra 10 minuti—rigorosamente senze do scoprila! Se toglie il coperchio troppo presto saranno falliti I gnocchi.
Servi la stufata nei piatti fondi caldo fumante.
Gnocchi 2
130 g farina 00
1.5 cuchiaini rasi di lievita in polvere
.5 cuchiaino sale
2 cucchiai olio di semi
1 uovo
90 ml latte
2 cucchiai prezzemolo tritato
Procedi precisamente come i gnocchi 1. Mi piacciono anche più i gnocchi 2, ma perchè volevo fare la metà di la ricetta e la metà d’un uovo fa fatica, ho fatto gnocchi 1. Ma I gnocchi 2 sono più ricchi.
Come era? Buonissima! Davvero un piatto per I giorni che fa freddo, che tira il vento, che piove a fa buio permanente. E’ anche un piatto che piace ai bambini. Per I giorni impegnati, fai la stufata un’altro giorno, e poi riscaldila e fai I gnocchi proprio prima del pasto. E’ anche un piatto elastico, che se venga qualcuno in più si può taglieare I pezzi di pollo più piccoli e fare più dei gnocchi. In America quella qualità è stata importante, perchè a casa nostra sono venuti gli ospiti inaspettati.
Cosa non fare: Non fare questo piatto dei petti do pollo senza pelle. Non raggiunge mai un brodo saporito così. Non omettere niente dei profumi, anche se non vuoi mangairli, fanno il brodo. Non hai paura di cambiare l’erbe profume secondo gusto tuo.
6 comments October 3rd, 2008
